Deals & People November 10, 2010

Nationwide Brings on Five Field Reps

Nationwide Financial Services hired five Field Service Representatives (FSRs) for its private sector retirement plans sales force.
Reported by

A news release said these FSRs will meet with participants to educate them about their employer’s 401(k) plan, guide them through the enrollment process, and provide continued support to help them make the most of their plan and increase overall participation.

The new representatives are:

  • Jamie Andersen, who will serve the Nebraska/Iowa and Minnesota territory. Anderson joins Nationwide from The Orizon Group, where she most recently served as a wealth adviser.
  • Pete Cressor, who will serve the Ohio and Western Pennsylvania region. Cressor’s previous role at Nationwide was internal wholesaler for Nationwide’s private sector retirement plans business.
  • Darin Hall, who will serve the Kansas, Oklahoma/Arkansas and Louisiana territory. Hall previously worked for Nationwide’s public sector retirement plans business as a retirement specialist for the state of Oklahoma.
  • Cindy Hanke, who will serve the Virginia, Maryland and DC territory. Hanke joins Nationwide from SunTrust Investment Services, where she worked as an investment associate. 
  • Ron Salvemini, who will serve the Northern California and Northern Nevada territory. Salvemini previously worked for Nationwide’s public sector retirement plans business as a retirement specialist for the Northern California region.

The new field service representatives will report to Jessica Neal, field service manager for retirement plan sales.

For more stories like this, sign up for the PLANADVISERdash daily newsletter.

Compliance November 10, 2010

DoL Blasts 9th Circuit for Prudence Presumption Endorsement

Lawyers representing Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis have asked the 9th Circuit to overturn a three-judge panel's decision embracing the “presumption of prudence” standard often seen in employer stock-drop lawsuits.
Reported by

The Department of Labor (DoL) lawyers made the request in a “friend of the court” brief in which they ask the appellate court to rehear the case with all judges participating rather than the customary three-judge panel.

The 9th Circuit is considering rehearing a request filed by plaintiff Frederico Quan, after the lower court threw out his stock drop suit against Computer Sciences Corp. and a three-judge 9th Circuit panel upheld the lower court.  The judges on the original panel contended that the prudence presumption is in line with the language of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and of lawmakers who passed it to encourage employee ownership of their companies (see Case Sensitive:”Moench” Mete?).

Never miss a story — sign up for PLANADVISER newsletters to keep up on the latest retirement plan adviser news.

In their brief, the government lawyers claim instead that the prudence presumption conflicts with ERISA in that the 9th Circuit’s original decision in the case replaces ERISA’s objective prudence standard of court with a “more lenient, judicially-created standard.” Not only that, but the lawyers also asserted that the original 9th Circuit ruling created an improper safe harbor for employee stock investments, which the DoL said could endanger billions of dollars in pension plans.

By adding to the statutory prudent man standard with an “abuse of discretion” benchmark, the three-judge panel’s decision “improperly holds that plan fiduciaries may make or hold plan investments in employer stock even in circumstances where a plan fiduciary would not do so, as long as the ‘company’s viability’ is not implicated,” the DoL lawyers asserted.

The government’s brief in the case is at http://www.dol.gov/sol/media/briefs/quan(A)-11-1-2010.htm.

«