Newport Turns to Schaffernoth for VP Position

The Newport Group appointed Rob Schaffernoth as Vice President, Retirement Services, a newly created position at the company.

Schaffernoth will develop and deploy a variety of new business process management initiatives, the company said.

Prior to joining Newport, Schaffernoth was a principal in Sungard’s Wealth Management Global Services. In that role, he consulted with clients on their operational environment, strategically assessing operations and services as well as managing client projects on-site. He also served as Director of Operations at Invesco, where he developed plan enhancements and improved functionality to ensure that large qualified retirement plans met high standards.

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Schaffernoth earned his bachelor’s degree in business administration from Appalachian State University in North Carolina. He also attended the University of North Carolina’s management development program.

Ex-Business Owners Responsible for Plan Losses

Former owners of a St. Paul, Minnesota, business services company are jointly liable for repaying losses to the company’s retirement plan after they used plan assets to pay creditors, a judge ruled.

U.S. District Judge Ann D. Montgomery of the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota rejected arguments by defendant Joel Blackford that he was not a fiduciary under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).  Montgomery ruled both Joel Blackford and co-defendant Susan Blackford qualified as fiduciaries. Susan Blackford, the plan’s administrator, admitted she was a fiduciary.

A Department of Labor (DoL) lawsuit alleged that the Blackfords co-mingled between $12,000 and $14,000 from plan assets into their company’s general account between January 1, 2003, and December 31, 2006, and used the extra funds to pay creditors. The plan suffered losses of $13,218 as a result of the violations, according to the suit.

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Since the funds were mishandled under ERISA, Montgomery concluded that both Joel and Susan should be held liable for repaying the plan’s losses.

The case is Solis v. Blackford, D. Minn., No. 09-2148 ADM/JSM.

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