Deals & People December 5, 2012

Financial Engines Names Gamble EVP

Paul Gamble was promoted to executive vice president of distribution and institutional services at Financial Engines, an independent registered investment adviser.
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Gamble will continue to report to Larry Raffone, president of Financial Engines, and will be responsible for top-line revenue goals and all client-facing functions, including sales, distribution, relationship management, strategic alliances and communications. 

Gamble has more than 20 years of sales, relationship management and marketing experience in the retirement industry. Since 2004, he has served as vice president of national sales at Financial Engines, overseeing all aspects of sales, consultant relations and participant communications. Before joining Financial Engines, he was vice president of institutional retirement sales at Scudder Investments and vice president of institutional retirement sales at Fidelity Investments previously.

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“Paul has been instrumental in building the foundation for Financial Engines’ core business, leading the team that brought in the majority of the 401(k) providers and Fortune 500 customers we now serve,” Raffone said. “Over his 12-year tenure with the company, he has helped achieve over $560 billion in assets under contract and over $61 billion in assets under management, and is deeply familiar with every aspect of our customer relationships.” 

Gamble holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the College of Wooster. He sits on the executive committee of the Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association (DCIIA) and is actively involved in industry discussions around improving defined contribution plan design for sponsors and participants.

The Markets December 5, 2012

Institutional Investors Rethink Asset Allocation

The continued volatility of global financial markets has identified weaknesses in investment portfolios, causing institutional investors to reconsider asset-allocation strategies.
Reported by

“The Asset Owners’ Perspective: Evolving Investment and Operational Models,” a vision paper from State Street Corp., says investors are utilizing new approaches to liquidity management to modify their portfolio mix and balance the need for liquidity with the need for returns. State Street’s research found the top actions taken by asset owners to address the liquidity crunch include more vigorous stress testing and the revision of liquidity-related investment policies.  

Fixed-income investing remains a growth area among defined benefit (DB) pension plans. Thirty-nine percent of corporate plans surveyed expect to increase allocations to corporate investment-grade debt, and 30% of public plans anticipate expanding allocations to emerging market debt investments in the coming year. Nearly 84% of respondents still consider the endowment model of investing a highly effective framework for today’s markets. Forty-five percent of asset owners reported that low yields on traditional assets have increased their organization’s appetite for alternatives, particularly among institutions at the smaller end of the market.  

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Data integration remains a top operational challenge. Nearly half of respondents cited challenges with achieving a comprehensive analysis of their portfolio, and two-thirds expect their data management needs to increase over the next three years.  

“Many asset owners are now placing liquidity high among their priorities for asset-allocation decisions and re-evaluating their liquidity management approach,” said Dan Farley, senior managing director and chief investment officer for State Street Global Advisor’s investment solutions group. “This has led to the adoption of new asset allocation frameworks that focus on optimizing the trade-off between risk and return based on the unique characteristics of each portfolio. Asset owners must carefully consider their approach to this equation and consider more dynamic methods of generating returns using various liquidity strategies.”  

The report can be downloaded from http://www.statestreet.com/vision.

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