Deals & People September 23, 2008

Putnam Investment Chief Departs

Putnam Investments said Tuesday that Kevin Cronin has stepped down from his post, effective October 1.
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A Putnam statement said Cronin, a senior managing director, had been serving as head of investments for the Boston-based firm. The investment company said Cronin announced his departure “for personal reasons.’

“While at Putnam, Mr. Cronin built a strong investment management leadership team that will remain in place, providing stability and continuity of management,’ the Putnam statement said.

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Robert L. Reynolds, Putnam’s president and CEO, is reviewing Putnam’s current organizational structure in light of Cronin’s departure, Putnam said. Until Putnam finalizes its investment structure, Cronin’s team will report to Reynolds. David Calabro, managing director and senior portfolio manager, will take on Cronin’s responsibility for large cap equities on an interim basis.

Products September 23, 2008

Fiduciary Benchmarks Launches New Service for NRP Clients

Fiduciary Benchmarks, Inc. (FBi) partnered with National Retirement Partners (NRP) to offer NRP clients annual plan fee, service, and success measure benchmarking.
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FBi said in a release it is establishing non-proprietary plan data to be aggregated and analyzed to provide financial advisers, consultants, and plan sponsors with benchmarking information, via FBi’s Benchmarks Plus and Benchmarks Basics reports.

According to the release, features of the reports include fee transparency and comparison against a benchmark universe of plans; service comparison against a benchmark universe of plans; success measure comparison against a benchmark universe of plans; plan complexity and outsourcing benchmarking; best practices and fiduciary oversight benchmarking; and satisfaction survey benchmarking.

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The reports are expected to be delivered to clients beginning early 2009, the release said.

“NRP wanted to take a leadership position relating to fee disclosure and benchmarking,’ said Bob Francis, COO of NRP, in the release. “The level of detail and analysis available via the FBi reports will greatly assist NRP advisers and their plan sponsor clients in addressing the increasing level of scrutiny for industry fees and services.’

FBi will be supporting NRP’s data warehousing initiative by providing data for use in product development, management reporting, and sales reporting, according to the release. FBi said it intends to make the service available to other clients in the future.

More information is available at www.fiduciarybenchmarks.com.

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