Deals & People October 21, 2014

MassMutual Expands Taft-Hartley Service Team

MassMutual’s retirement services group has added several members to its Taft-Hartley retirement plan client service team.
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The hires include three new relationship managers and two new sales consultants, and MassMutual’s Taft-Hartley staff is now made up of eight relationship managers and five sales staff dedicated to Taft-Hartley plans.

The new hires and promotions are as follows:

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  • Chad Girard was added as a sales consultant, providing internal support and resource management for the sales team. Girard joins MassMutual from Mercer and has more than 16 years of administrative experience in the market.
  • Dan Krause was hired as a business development consultant and will manage MassMutual’s union construction practice, strengthening relationships with building trade groups and providing event coordination and marketing. He joins MassMutual from International Union of Operating Engineers Local 478, where he was funds director for more than 20 years.
  • Ken Sullivan was named a relationship manager for MassMutual’s large Taft-Hartley retirement plan sponsors. Sullivan previously served on the Taft-Hartley team at Mercer and has 16 years of relationship management experience.
  • Eric Sarrazin recently joined the Taft-Hartley relationship management team after supporting MassMutual’s third-party administration (TPA) relationship management team for the last five years. In his 17-year career at MassMutual, Sarrazin has served in numerous capacities, including Taft-Hartley account manager and national accounts communications consultant.
  • Ron Packingham was named relationship manager after having worked as a retirement education specialist and registered representative for MassMutual for the past eight years. Packingham has 13 years of experience servicing retirement plan sponsors.

In addition, MassMutual promoted Joe Carmignani to assistant vice president and manager of the Taft-Hartley relationship management team. Prior to the promotion, Carmignani served as a relationship manager on the Taft-Hartley team.

John Dolan was also promoted, to managing director of the Taft-Hartley sales team. Dolan spent the last nine years as a Taft-Hartley relationship manager, including six years as part of MassMutual’s team.

Data & Research October 21, 2014

Private DC Assets Reach $4.7 Trillion

Total private defined contribution (DC) plan assets surpassed $4.7 trillion at the end of 2013, with $1 trillion in adviser-sold channels, according to Cerulli Associates.
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Jessica Sclafani, senior analyst at Cerulli, explains that service providers overseeing private DC assets have benefited from strong equity market performance, as well as an increased focus on improving plan participation ratios and participants’ ability to retire successfully. These factors have come together to drive more money into the DC system, meaning greater opportunity and competition. 

“The implementation of auto-features, such as automatic enrollment and automatic escalation, has also helped drive assets into the industry,” she adds.

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The findings are from Cerulli’s report, State of DCIO 2014: The Emerging Role of the Specialist Advisor, which analyzes the defined contribution investment-only (DCIO) and non-recordkeeping segments of the DC market. Sclafani says the report shows that, as the DC market continues to evolve, it is becoming more heterogeneous in that plan designs and asset allocations can vary widely depending on a plan’s overall asset size and the involvement of advisers and consultants. This means different plans can present significantly different opportunities for the various types of service providers in the DC investment chain. 

Remarking on another important trend, Sclafani says the DC industry is also slowly turning away from standalone investment decisions towards “total plan wellness.” As part of this shift, a large part of advisers’ and consultants’ proposed value-add in the DC space is specific to improving overall plan health and the average participant’s ability to retire with adequate income, she explains. As a result, more time and attention must be paid by advisers, consultants and service providers towards increasing participation ratios and deferral rates.

But there won’t be just one effective strategy or service model for advisers and consultants in this environment, Cerulli suggests. DC providers must be cognizant of the plan segment in which they are operating to be successful. Employers across industries and size classifications will require unique services and capabilities.

Information on how to obtain Cerulli reports is available here.

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