Deals & People March 20, 2008

Riegel Takes Equity Reins from Ulick at TIAA-CREF

TIAA-CREF has named Bill Riegel the company’s Head of Global Equity Investments, succeeding Susan Ulick, who will retire on April 1, 2008 as planned.
Reported by

In his new role, Riegel will report to Chief Investment Officer Ed Grzybowski and oversee TIAA-CREF’s equity investment unit, including active and quantitative portfolio management, research and trading. Previously, Riegel headed TIAA-CREF’s Global Equity Portfolio Management. According to a press release, Riegel will continue to oversee the portfolio managers he currently directs while he works through the transition.

Riegel joined TIAA-CREF in 1999 as a managing director to lead the company’s value investing strategies. He managed a portion of the CREF Stock Account from 1999 to 2002, and played a major role in managing the value portfolios of the TIAA-CREF mutual funds that were launched that year. Riegel joined TIAA-CREF following 20 years with J. P. Morgan Investment Management, where he managed 35 separate institutional equity and convertible accounts and J. P. Morgan’s large-cap U.S. equity mutual fund.

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

Ulick joined TIAA-CREF in 2000 as Head of Global Research. In that role, she was responsible for the quality and content of the fundamental research effort and valuation methodology to support the company’s active portfolio management initiatives. Ulick joined TIAA-CREF from J. P. Morgan Investment Management, where she held various positions in her 13 years with the firm, most recently as Head of Global Research to which she was appointed in 1995.

Diversions March 19, 2008

Long Shots

Apparently March Madness has a bearing on more than just the college basketball tournaments.
Reported by
First off, the good folks at outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas have once again stopped to figure out the costs of the NCAA tournament to employers.
Apparently with up to 37.3 million workers participating in the ubiquitous pools – and assuming they spend just 10 minutes a day during the 16 days of the tournament thinking, talking about, or watching the games (and perhaps shedding the occasional crocodile tear for a misplaced upset pick) – that’s $1.7 billion in lost productivity (and that’s assuming they make just $17.50/hour, mind you – the average employee wage, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics).
The fact that those numbers are regularly compiled by a firm that specializes in outplacement is surely just a coincidence.
Pool Ponderings?
Even more difficult to believe is a recent study by the Lincoln Retirement Institute that found respondents plan to spend more time in March pondering their retirement savings needs than they will on those NCAA pools. Now, lots of folks don’t participate in those pools – and nearly three-quarters (72%) said they would spend less than an hour making their NCAA Division 1 men’s basketball picks. So far, so good.
But in that same surveyed group – an online group of roughly 400 American adults – a whopping 87% said they will spend up to five hours….this month….pondering their retirement savings. Would that was more than good intentions (that surely has to be more than most people spend in a full year) – unless, of course their pool results contribute significantly to – or drain significantly – those retirement savings accounts.
Moreover, twice as many people surveyed gave themselves an “A+’ for their in-depth knowledge of their 401(k) plans and investment choices versus their knowledge of NCAA tournament player statistics and college team rankings. Nearly three out of five gave themselves a passing grade for their knowledge of their 401(k) or retirement plans, with men nearly twice as likely as women to give themselves top marks (“A’ or “B’) for 401(k) knowledge including investment allocations and stock options.
Of course, these are self-evaluations – and did you ever grade your own test in school?

«