Deals & People October 3, 2011

Consulting Veterans Join Callan Associates

Callan Associates plans to hire former Richards & Tierney (R&T) investment consulting veterans Ann Posey and John Simmons.
Reported by

Posey and Simmons will join the firm as Senior Vice Presidents in Callan’s Fund Sponsor Consulting group in Chicago. Four other hires from R&T—renamed Nuveen Investment Solutions (NIS) in 2008—will also join Callan: Sandra Weiskirch, CFA, Vice President and Senior Quantitative Analyst; Edward Kunzman, Vice President and Director of Investment Analysis; Ann Dee, Vice President of Marketing and Client Service; and Charles McPike, Managing Director and Chief Information Officer.

Simmons is currently President and Managing Director of Nuveen Investment Solutions and helps its clients with issues such as the establishment and monitoring of investment policy, risk budgeting, the structuring of multiple-manager teams, and performance attribution and risk analysis. From 1999 to 2007 he held several roles at R&T, finishing as principal and senior consultant on several of the firm’s institutional retainer relationships. Before joining R&T, Simmons was in equity research and analysis and risk management following his retirement from professional baseball.

Want the latest retirement plan adviser news and insights? Sign up for PLANADVISER newsletters.

Simmons earned a B.A. in English and an MBA with an emphasis in Financial Trading and Practice, both from Saint Xavier University.

Posey has been in the institutional investment industry for more than 30 years. She is Managing Director and Chief Operations Officer for Nuveen Investment Solutions and Chair of NIS’ Investment Committee. She joined R&T in 1993 as a principal and served as a senior consultant to a broad range of institutional fund sponsor clients. Prior to joining R&T, Posey was Vice President of Kemper Asset Management where she built out and was responsible for the client service efforts for Kemper’s institutional business. Posey began her career at Household International and eventually served as manager of pension investments, responsible for coordinating the investment programs for the firm’s defined benefit plans.

Posey earned a B.A. from Purdue University and an MBA in Finance from DePaul University.

Data & Research October 3, 2011

Transamerica Reveals Top Issues Facing TPAs

Transamerica Retirement Services is releasing results from its national "listening tour" with third party administrators (TPAs), which aimed to identify the top five marketplace issues for TPAs.  
Reported by

Transamerica talked with TPA partners and TPA business owners to learn about the most pressing business issues they’re facing and to seek input on how Transamerica can better serve their needs.

Transamerica identified these as the top five TPA marketplace issues:

Want the latest retirement plan adviser news and insights? Sign up for PLANADVISER newsletters.

  1. TPAs are depending on creative marketing strategies to help grow their businesses. Economic pressures are causing TPAs to focus on marketing more than ever, and many are looking for ways to implement and maximize new marketing strategies as a means for future growth, such as joint marketing campaigns with plan providers that are committed to the TPA business model.
  2. Hiring, education, and training support is an ongoing need for TPAs and their employees. In an industry facing new regulatory and legislative concerns, TPA business owners have expressed the need for current and ongoing educational opportunities for their employees.
  3. As the April 1, 2012, deadline approaches for the new 408(b)(2) fee disclosure rules, plan sponsors are likely to look to TPAs to help with more fee education. Sponsors will likely use TPAs as a resource for information on value for cost. TPAs and plan providers need to work together to help ensure that plan sponsors understand new fee disclosures.
  4. Technology platforms offered by plan providers are critical to TPA efficiencies. TPAs want a flexible business model from retirement plan providers that gives the TPA technology to ease plan administration, and choice in how to use the technology platform with their clients.
  5. Integration with payroll vendors gives TPAs a competitive edge. Simplicity in benefits management is key to plan sponsors, and integration with payroll companies gives TPAs expanded opportunities to provide streamlined service.

«