Financial Engines Names Portfolio Management Group Head

Financial Engines has hired Omar Aguilar as head of its Portfolio Management group, reporting to Chief Investment Officer Christopher Jones.

In his new role, Aguilar is responsible for all portfolio management functions at the company, including all aspects of portfolio construction, implementation, and oversight; investment processes and policies; performance measurement and attribution; investment reviews; and working with plan sponsors, provider partners, and consulting firms to promote Financial Engines’ investment methodology. The company said he will serve on the investment committee and be a key resource in strengthening relationships with Financial Engines’ client base of large plan sponsors.

Aguilar has more than 16 years of quantitative investment experience. Prior to joining Financial Engines, he was the head of Quantitative Equity for ING, where he was responsible for building and developing the firm’s quantitative equity group, managing more than $20 billion in assets. He joined ING in 2004 from Lehman Brothers, where he served as the head of Quantitative Research for its alternative investment management business. Prior to that, he was a director of quantitative research and portfolio manager with Merrill Lynch Investment Management.



Though Worried about Finances, Many Doing Nothing

While many homeowners are spending less or paying down debt, others are experiencing inertia about making changes.

A survey of U.S. homeowners by Wells Fargo & Company found fear of unemployment and the state of the job market most influence homeowners’ concern over their financial situation, yet, when asked how they are conducting their personal finances, two in five homeowners (38%) said they have made no significant changes in the past year.

Those who have made no changes cited they “don’t have a need” as the primary reason, according to a press release of the results.

However, 60% of respondents ages 18 to 41 said something else is holding them back, compared to 27% of those who are 42 and older. Nearly one-quarter of younger homeowners (24%) said it seems pointless given their financial situation, while another 22% seem to be procrastinating, saying they “plan to but haven’t started yet.”

The rest either don’t know how or what to do (10%), don’t have the time (6%), or don’t want to even though they should (2%).

The survey also found that younger homeowners are not as educated as they would like to be about how to effectively establish and use credit. Thirty-five percent of homeowners ages 18 to 29 and 19% of those ages 30 to 41 said they have not recently sought information on how to get and improve their credit but wanted to do so, compared to just 11% of homeowners ages 42 to 60 and only 3% of those ages 61 and over.

Other homeowners said they’re spending less. Thirty percent of homeowners said in the past year they’ve paid down debt, and 25% said they’ve learned how to better manage their budget on their own.

Compared to a year ago, homeowners are spending even less, with at least 50% reducing what they spend on entertainment and vacations, 50% looking for the lowest prices, and about two in five homeowners (37%) purchasing only what they need.

“The silver lining of this economy seems to be the changes to more financial healthy behavior,” said Jamie Moldafsky of the Wells Fargo Home Equity Group. When homeowners were asked if they plan to make specific changes in their spending short-term, while the economy is in a recession, or long-term changes after the economy has recovered, 77% of homeowners who are purchasing only what they need plan make it a long-term behavior, she said. Furthermore, a large majority of those who are price-shopping, teaching children about managing finances, and budgeting consider these to be long-term changes in their lives.

The survey, conducted for Wells Fargo by marketing research consultancy Ipsos Marketing, polled 1,600 U.S. homeowners in June.

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