Retirement Industry People Moves

New hires and promotions at Cafaro Greenleaf, McDermott Will & Emery, Lincoln Financial Group and more.

Henry Henkel has joined Cafaro Greenleaf as director of business development. Henkel, who has more than 25 years of experience in U.S. institutional pension marketplace sales, service and administration, will lead Cafaro Greenleaf in developing new clients, educating prospects and advancing strategic market plans.

Henkel has headed regional and national sales teams, selling and supporting retirement product solutions to mid-size and large institutions. He has managed and sold products to intermediary and client relationships across a range of markets.

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Before coming to Cafaro Greenleaf, Henkel served in a variety of roles, including national director of asset management sales for MetLife, senior vice president of sales for Dreyfus Investment Advisors, director of fixed-income sales for AXIA Investment Management and regional sales director of the Americas for AEGON Global Pensions.

Henkel was awarded a bachelor’s degree in English and education, cum laude, from University at Buffalo and a master’s degree in English from New York University. He holds FINRA Series 6, 63 and 26 licenses.

Wayne Greenleaf, managing principal of Cafaro Greenleaf, cited Henkel’s leadership, strategic insight and industry knowledge as assets that will help the firm deepen client relationships as well as pursue new opportunities.

Cafaro Greenleaf is an advisory firm for corporate and public retirement plans.

NEXT: McDermott Will & Emery adds two employee benefits partners. 

Erin Turley and Allison Wilkerson have joined the Dallas office of McDermott Will & Emery from K&L Gates, where they were nationally known as authorities in advising large publicly traded clients on all areas of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), including qualified plans, nonqualified plans, and executive and deferred compensation and welfare benefit plans; and on regulatory compliance with the Internal Revenue Code, COBRA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). Turley and Wilkerson are the newest partners in the firm’s employee benefits, compensation, labor and employment practice group.

Turley and Wilkerson are also recognized for their expertise in employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) assisting clients in the design and implementation of ESOP transactions as well as providing ongoing legal counsel to ESOP-owned companies.

Frequent speakers on ESOP and employee benefit matters, Turley and Wilkerson are members of The ESOP Association.

Turley is current chair of the American Bar Association’s Tax Section Subcommittee: ESOPs, a post which she has held since 2012. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Dallas, a juris doctorate from Texas Tech University School of Law and a master of laws degree from Georgetown University Law Center.

Wilkerson holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration/finance from Baylor University and a juris doctorate from the University of Texas School of Law.

David Rogers, global head of McDermott’s employee benefits, compensation, labor and employment practice group, cited Turley’s and Wilkerson’s attention to client service and team culture.

David Guedry, partner-in-charge of McDermott’s Dallas office, cited Turley’s and Wilkerson’s deep substantive expertise as well as a proven cross-practice synergy between the Dallas employee benefits and corporate practices, since they have previously worked closely with several of the firm’s corporate partners in Dallas.

McDermott Will & Emery has more than 65 lawyers who practice exclusively in employee benefits and compensation, and represents more than 60 Fortune 500 companies and 20 Fortune 100 companies in employee benefits matters.

NEXT: Lincoln Financial Group names business development director.

Javier Obando has been named director of business development on the institutional retirement distribution team of Lincoln Financial Group’s Retirement Plan Services. Obando is responsible for working with government plan sponsors, national and regional independent registered adviser and consulting firms in the western region of the country. He will help plan sponsors and advisers address industry trends in fiduciary governance and plan design to optimize retirement outcomes.

Before joining Lincoln, Obando was regional sales director for Empower (formerly Great-West Retirement Services), where he focused on the government sector. He also spent several years at the company in numerous sales positions including client relationship and business development. Obando was also a retirement consultant with Benefit Funding Services Group and a regional director at Prudential Retirement. He is based in Los Angeles and reports to Jason Key, head of business development in institutional retirement distribution. Key cited Obando’s extensive experience in retirement plan services and the government sector.

Obando holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from California State Polytechnic University. He holds FINRA series 6 and 63 licenses, and California Life and Disability licenses.

NEXT: PSCA names vice president of Washington affairs.

Richard McHugh has joined the Plan Sponsor Council of America (PSCA) as vice president of Washington affairs.

A PSCA member and active participant on PSCA’s legal and legislative committee for more than 30 years, McHugh is intimately familiar with the organization’s legacy of advocacy on behalf of the plan sponsor, and has been an active participant in countless member advocacy efforts, including drafting proposed legislation, preparing comment letters, meeting with government officials, and testifying before relevant government agencies and councils, including the ERISA Advisory Council. Most recently, McHugh was instrumental in developing PSCA’s comments to the Department of Labor (DOL) regarding the re-proposed fiduciary rule. McHugh has worked closely with Ed Ferrigno, his predecessor, and Sam Murray, Ferrigno’s predecessor.

McHugh, who has 35 years of employee benefits experience, was a long–time partner with the law firm of Dow Lohnes PLLC, which for many years served as PSCA’s outside counsel, in Washington D.C. In 2010, he joined the law firm of Porter Wright Morris & Arthur LLP as a partner, where he will remain Of Counsel.

McHugh is a specialist in all areas of employee benefits law, including qualified and non-qualified retirement plans, employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs), and health and welfare benefit plans, with considerable experience handling employee benefit plan issues in the context of mergers and acquisitions, takeovers, and dispositions. For many years he has provided consultation and advice regarding legislative and regulatory developments affecting the employee benefits industry, including retirement, health care, executive compensation matters, and related human resource issues.

Steve McCaffrey, chair of PSCA’s board of directors, cited McHugh’s substantial knowledge of the defined contribution system, as well as employee benefits programs, as a powerful asset to the organization and its members, along with his knowledge of PSCA and its activities in Washington.

McHugh holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Georgetown University and a juris doctorate from Georgetown University Law Center. His appointment was effective September 1.

DOL Seeks More than $1.6M in Losses for Profit Sharing Plan

A health care company filed no annual reports, did not perform valuations and took more than $1.6 million in improper distributions in violation of ERISA, the DOL alleges.

Alliance Home Healthcare Inc., a Palos Hills, Illinois, home health care provider, faces a suit by the Department of Labor (DOL) alleging that the company, its profit-sharing plan and two of its trustees improperly authorized distributions of $1,601,908 in profit-sharing plan assets, in violation of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

Trustees named in the suit are Reginaldo Sulit and Dalisay Sulit, the company’s owners and the plan’s two named trustees. Dalisay Sulit is the mother of Reginaldo Sulit.

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Dalisay Sulit, president, and Reginaldo Sulit, secretary/treasurer, allegedly took distributions of more than $1 million, to which they were not entitled, according to the DOL. The suit asserts that these plan withdrawals were not in the best interests of the participants and beneficiaries of the employee benefit plan, as required by the law. The withdrawn plan assets were used for non-plan purposes, including directly benefiting the company.

Alliance Home Healthcare established its profit sharing plan on January 1, 2000. As of December 31, 2006, the last year an annual report was filed, the plan had 127 participants and $1.6 million in assets.

For plan years 2009 through 2014, Reginaldo Sulit and Alliance failed to direct the trustees to perform year-to-year plan valuations or an annual accounting. This meant that Reginaldo Sulit and Alliance did not have updated account information upon which they could accurately calculate individual participant account balances for each plan participant and determine correct distribution amounts for eligible plan participants.

NEXT: Distributions in excess of account balances

From January 1, 2008 through the present, Reginaldo Sulit, as plan trustee, made distributions from the plan. Plan assets were assigned sometimes to Reginaldo Sulit, although he was not eligible to receive plan distributions, sometimes to the company accounts for Alliance, and sometimes to Dalisay Sulit. Based on her participation in the plan, as of December 31, 2008, Dalisay Sulit’s individual account balance was approximately $269,300.11. From May 30, 2012 to February 27, 2014, she received approximately $754,699.90 in excess of her December 2008 account balance.

Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, the suit seeks restoration of all related plan losses, including lost opportunity costs, and a court order requiring the defendants to account for and restore losses to plan participants.

The department is also seeking to permanently enjoin the defendants from serving as fiduciaries or service providers to any plan covered by ERISA. The suit requests the appointment of an independent fiduciary, who would be compensated at the company’s expense, to distribute the plan’s assets to participants and beneficiaries, and to terminate the plan.

“Plan funds must be invested in the interest of workers and retirees, not used to prop up a struggling firm,” said Jeffrey Monhart, regional director of the department’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) in Chicago. “Too often, we see employee benefit plan funds used illegally by company owners and management, jeopardizing the financial security of workers and retirees.”

The DOL case document can be viewed here.

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