Products December 2, 2014

LGIMA Launches Index Fund Business

Legal & General Investment Management America unveiled a new U.S. index fund management business.
Reported by

Legal & General Investment Management America (LGIMA), a Chicago-based investment adviser, introduced the new U.S. index fund management business to build on capabilities and management strategies provided to U.S. pension and institutional market clients. The firm has also expanded its core fixed-income and liability-driven investing offerings as part of the move. 

The index fund management unit will leverage a model established by its UK-based affiliate, Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM), which currently oversee about $466 billion of index fund assets under management, as of September 30, 2014.

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“Indexing is an important component in our sophisticated approach to implementing a cost effective and customized de-risking strategy for our pension and institutional clients,” says Mike Craston, LGIMA CEO.

In preparation for the global launch, LGIMA assumed $60 billion in pension assets from LGIM, more than doubling its assets, and added two members to its index fund team.

“We expect the movement from traditional active management to index and alternative beta strategies will continue to accelerate, driven by the investor’s increasing appetite for transparency and lower cost implementation,” says Chad Rakvin, head of U.S. index funds. “Our core offerings of active fixed income, liability driven investing, and index management provide the perfect platform for delivering sophisticated solutions to institutional investors.”

Deals & People December 2, 2014

Lincoln Financial Distributors Hires National Sales Manager

Tim Seifert joins Lincoln Financial Distributors as vice president, national sales manager, of its intermediary retirement plan services business.
Reported by

The wholesale distribution subsidiary of Lincoln Financial Group announces the addition of Tim Seifert as vice president, national sales manager, of the intermediary retirement plan services business. Seifert is responsible for expanding Lincoln’s small market retirement plan services sales force, while ensuring advisers continue to receive quality service. Additionally, he is tasked with developing and implementing strategies that increase awareness of Lincoln’s broad portfolio of retirement plan solutions, and helping advisers bring quality retirement outcomes to their clients.

“We are committed to further strengthening Lincoln’s reputation as the industry’s leading authority on retirement plan services and broadening our footprint in the marketplace,” says John Kennedy, head of Lincoln’s retirement solutions distribution unit. “Our growth and sales efforts continue to prosper, and Seifert’s nearly three decades of financial services experience, vast knowledge and expertise in all areas of distribution, and proven history of creating exponential growth in the intermediary channel will help take our expansion initiative to a new level.”

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Seifert has held senior sales leadership roles at Prudential and RS Investments and has spent 23 years at PLANCO Financial Services Group. He holds a bachelor of science degree in marketing from Elizabethtown College.

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