Deals & People July 5, 2024

Retirement Industry People Moves – 7/5/24

McGlynn promoted to director of national partnership sales at Pacific Life; Munari named chief product officer at MSCI; Pentegra hires Maxwell as head of strategic accounts; and more.

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McGlynn Appointed as Director of National Partnership Sales, at Pacific Life

Chris McGlynn

Pacific Life Insurance Co. has promoted Christopher McGlynn to director of national partnership sales from the role of national sales director of defined contribution lifetime income and pension risk transfer, according to the firm.

McGlynn will collaborate with key national strategic partners to optimize opportunities related to distributing Pacific Life’s joint defined contribution lifetime income retirement solutions.

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His responsibilities include establishing joint partnership visions, planning go-to market activities, supporting partner strategy execution, monitoring market trends and analyzing sales data to drive results.

MSCI Appoints Munari Chief Product Officer

Alvise Munari

MSCI has named Alvise Munai as chief product officer. Munari, who has been serving as chief client officer, will continue to report to Baer Pettit, MSCI’s president and chief operating officer.

Munari will be responsible for leading product development and innovation by working to drive collaboration between MSCI’s product teams and the firm’s client coverage, marketing, research, technology and data teams. Munari has 20 years of prior financial industry experience, including in product innovation leadership roles at Goldman Sachs, Bank of America Corp.’s Merrill and Morgan Stanley.

With Munari’s appointment, Alex Killian will be promoted to chief client officer, now reporting to Pettit. Killian joined MSCI in 2020 as head of client coverage for Europe, the Middle East and Africa and has 25 years of experience in the investment industry.

Maxwell Joins Pentegra as Head of Strategic Accounts

Mike Maxwell

Mike Maxwell was named head of strategic accounts for Pentegra Retirement Services, where he will focus on developing strategic level enterprise and advisory relationships with distribution and recordkeeping organizations.

Maxwell join the third-party administrator with retirement plan experience and nearly 20 years of work cultivating strategic relationships with retirement industry organizations, according to Pentegra’s announcement.

Prior to joining Pentegra, Maxwell spent the last 18 years of his career at Empower, MassMutual and The Hartford. Previous roles include national account director, broker/dealer, director, national key accounts and manager and retirement plans group new business.

Itami Joins Lathrop GPM

Allison Itami

Lathrop GPM LLP announced that Allison Itami has joined the firm’s business transactions practice group in Minneapolis as an employee benefits partner.

This marks Lathrop GPM’s ninth lateral partner hire in 2024 as part of its commitment to strategic growth. Itami is also the second partner to join the firm’s team in Minneapolis in the past month.

Itami joins Lathrop GPM from benefits firm Groom Law Group, where she counseled employers and financial institutions on Employee Retirement Income Security Act fiduciary duties of prudence and loyalty and related prohibited transactions applicable to retirement plans and individual retirement accounts. Itami also advises on the application of fiduciary laws to health and welfare benefit offerings, including a unique focus on captive insurance and reinsurance in health and welfare benefits.

“Lathrop GPM’s cutting-edge business transactions work provides unmatched opportunities to expand both my practice and the firm’s breadth of services,” said Itami in a statement. “It’s a strong fit culturally, and I look forward to working with such a talented team.”

Compliance July 5, 2024

Federal Court Issues Temporary Stay on FTC Noncompete Ban

A final ruling on the merits of the regulator’s ban on noncompete contracts for employees is expected by August 30.

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The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division, issued a preliminary injunction enjoining the Federal Trade Commission’s ban on noncompete agreements in the case Ryan LLC et al. v. Federal Trade Commission. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is a co-plaintiff in the suit.

The FTC finalized the ban in April, which makes unenforceable all noncompete agreements for employees leaving an employer, but does not affect non-solicitation agreements, often used as a way to stop advisers from bringing or poaching clients when they leave a firm.

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A noncompete agreement is a contract, often required as a condition of employment, that prevents an employee from leaving the employer to work for another employer or to start a new business within a set period of time after leaving the employer.

Current noncompete contracts signed by executives will be allowed to run their course but may not be renewed, according to the FTC’s rule, which takes effect on September 4.

The injunction in Ryan only applies to the plaintiffs at hand and is not a national injunction. The court wrote that it will render a final ruling on the merits by August 30.

In the injunction, the court found that the plaintiffs are likely to be successful on the merits, which does not bode well for the FTC. The court noted that the plaintiffs would suffer irreparable harm in the absence of a preliminary injunction because their employees would be permitted to start new businesses and accept better job offers elsewhere.

The FTC has the authority to issue “housekeeping” rules related to process and not “substantive” rules, the court said, and can also issues case-by-case rulings on matters related to unfair or deceptive practices.

The FTC has argued that it has rulemaking authority over anti-competitive practices; the court answered that those provisions have “no penalty provision—which indicates a lack of substantive force.”

The court wrote that “the text, structure, and history of the FTC Act reveal that the FTC lacks substantive rulemaking authority with respect to unfair methods of competition.”

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