Deals & People October 10, 2023

Retirement Industry People Moves – 10/6/23

PGIM Investments appoints Carlino as global head of alternative investments; Equitable Holdings names Bass head of investor relations; Pine joins Carson Group as Chief Legal Officer; and more.

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Retirement Industry People Moves – 10/6/23

PGIM Investments Appoints Carlino as Global Head of Alternative Investments

Dominick Carlino

PGIM Investments has appointed Dominick Carlino as global head of alternative investments. He will report to Stuart Parker, president and CEO of PGIM Investments.

“Dominick’s deep understanding and experience in the alternatives space will add tremendous value to our business as we continue to extend PGIM’s full array of high-quality private capabilities to our financial intermediary partners and their high-net-worth clients,” said Parker in a statement.

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In this newly created role, Carlino will be responsible for driving the continued development and distribution of alternative investments tailored to wealth management needs around the globe.

Carlino most recently served as managing director and head of alternative investments distribution at Merrill Lynch. Prior to his 10 years at Merrill Lynch, Carlino held various business development and distribution roles at AlphaOne Capital Partners, Morgan Stanley and Susquehanna International Group.

Equitable Holdings Names Bass Head of Investor Relations

Erik Bass

Equitable Holdings Inc. announced the appointment of Erik Bass as head of investor relations, effective immediately.

Bass will be responsible for communicating the company’s strategy and financial performance, as well as maintaining and expanding relationships with the investor and analyst communities. He will report to Robin Raju, Equitable’s chief financial officer.

“Erik’s knowledge and ability to produce valuable, industry-specific insights will enhance our relationships with investors and the market,” said Raju in a statement. “As a top analyst in our sector, Erik understands Equitable Holdings’ unique, integrated business model, and his experience will help advance our growth strategy.”

Bass joins the company after his seven-year tenure with AllianceBernstein’s sell-side research subsidiary, Autonomous Research, where he served as the lead U.S. life insurance analyst and was named in 2022 director of U.S. research, overseeing coverage across all sectors.

Pine Joins Carson Group as Chief Legal Officer

Julie Pine

Carson Group has hired Julie Pine as its chief legal officer. Pine will report directly to Teri Shepherd, president of the Carson Group, and will oversee all legal and regulatory matters for the firm.

“Julie’s impressive legal background and her dedication to community align perfectly with the values and goals of Carson Group,” Shepherd said in a statement. “Her expertise will be instrumental as we navigate the complex legal and regulatory landscape in our industry.”

Pine previously served as executive vice president, general counsel and chief risk officer at Lead Bank, in Kansas City, Missouri. During her tenure, Pine oversaw legal, risk, compliance, human resources and information security functions.

Early in her career, Pine was a commercial litigator and equity shareholder at McDowell, Rice, Smith & Buchanan PC before taking on the role of general counsel at Mariner Wealth Advisors.

Vestwell Hires Farmakis as SVP for Enterprise Sales

John Farmakis

John Farmakis has joined Vestwell as a senior vice president for enterprise sales. He will focus on growing strategic partnerships in retirement, asset management and insurance.

“I am delighted to join the impressive Vestwell team,” Farmakis said in a statement. “At this stage in my career, it was essential to align myself with the ‘go-to firm’ across the industry with the de facto platform for all workplace savings and investing. Vestwell’s leadership and culture, combined with the company’s great momentum, were key factors in my decision to join the team.”

In his career of more than 40 years, Farmakis has worked at firms such as Ubiquity Retirement + Savings, BlackRock and ADP Retirement Services. He has a track record in strategic business development, sales and relationship management.

Haase Named Chief Revenue Officer at 401Go

Ted Haase

Small business retirement plan provider 401Go Inc. has appointed Ted Haase to the role of chief revenue officer, the company’s CEO, Dan Beck, confirmed this week by email.

Haase is responsible for managing 401Go marketing and sales efforts.

“We’ve hired Ted to help accelerate growth and expand our partner-based approach to [retirement plan] distribution,” Beck says. “We have seen a massive increase in financial advisors wanting to work with us and have been needing to scale our advisor support team, which Ted is now leading.”

Haase previously worked at retirement plan provider Human Interest for four years, ending his tenure with the title of national senior director of business development. Prior to working there, Haase worked at retirement plan recordkeeper Paychex in several roles for 21 years. 

Data & Research October 9, 2023

Half of Hispanic Adults Not Prepared for Retirement, LIMRA Reports

Financial institutions have an opportunity to design solutions tailored to the needs of a huge potential audience of Latino workers.

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Half of Hispanic adults (50%) reported being very worried about having enough money for retirement, six percentage points higher than the response from the general population, according to LIMRA’s 2023 Insurance Barometer Study, but the owner of a Hispanic-run financial wellness platform says focused engagement with the Latino audience can help.

“Talking about retirement money at the dinner table is not something that Hispanic families tend to do,” Carlos Garcia, founder and CEO at Finhabits, created by Latinos to help Latinos build, grow and protect wealth, said in an emailed response. “They also lack access to wealth advisers and are not as likely to build the habit of saving for retirement on their own. So part of their worry can be attributed to just a lack of knowledge about how the system works.”

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LIMRA found that 34% of Hispanics believe they have saved enough for retirement, six points lower than the national average. They are also less likely to believe they have done enough planning for retirement. To help Hispanic workers feel more confident and save more, the workplace retirement plan industry can start demystifying the money conversation, Garcia says.

“There needs to be education at the basic and intermediate level in the workplace,” he recommends. “Translating a website to Spanish is not enough to build a relationship with a Hispanic worker. There needs to be a continuous engagement that encourages financial habits.”

Approaching 70 million people, or nearly 20% of the U.S. population, Latinos present a significant opportunity for every sector, according to Finhabits’ 2023 “Power in Numbers” report. Yet efforts to capitalize on the wealth potential of this segment, which by the firm’s estimates will grow to $113 trillion by 2050, have so far fallen short.

“Yes, more Spanish-language businesses are offering retirement plans,” Garcia says. “There are 5 million Hispanic-owned businesses in the U.S. The numbers don’t lie. But the traditional financial institutions need to better understand the needs of this population and design solutions that resonate with Latinos in order to grow their own businesses for the long-term.”

The Finhabits report urged financial institutions to recognize the potential of the Latino wealth opportunity and build new offerings that address the long-term needs of this audience. Responding to this need, the firm has created a 401(k) plan to help Latino business owners provide retirement savings to their workers.

“Hispanics understand how to deal with the day-to-day money questions,” Garcia says, “but they need to understand how to deal with the long-term money questions as well.”

The Power in Numbers report analyzed the aggregated saving and investing approaches of 90,000 Finhabits customers, as of September 2023, who are indicative of the wealth generation of Hispanics.

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