MFS Hires Three for DCI Unit

MFS Investment Management (MFS) has added three new members to its Defined Contribution Investments (DCI) group to focus its sales and relationship management efforts in various DCI market segments.

MFS said Craig McKenna joins MFS as director, National Accounts, and is focused on adviser-oriented DC platforms. He previously served as vice president and senior retirement consultant for AllianceBernstein Investment Research and Management, Inc. He reports to Matthew Gannon, senior vice president and head of the DCI practice for MFS.

John Jessee also joins MFS as director, National Accounts, and will concentrate his efforts on the third-party-administrator (TPA) market. He previously worked for The Hartford in its retirement plan services group, also focused on the TPA market. He also reports to Gannon.

Finally, Peter Delaney joins MFS as associate director, National Accounts. He will focus on institutional retirement plan platforms, supporting the efforts of MFS Institutional Advisors, Inc.’s (MFSI) Consultant Relations, Sales and Relationship Management teams.

Delaney was most recently a managing director and investment consultant at The Hartford, working with defined contribution plan sponsors, consultants, and advisers. He reports to Jon Hubbard, director, National Accounts.

“MFS has created three new positions to more effectively target distribution efforts in the highly competitive DCI marketplace,” said Gannon. “They will work in partnership with various MFS business units—institutional, retail and professional buyer segments—to facilitate expanded and stronger relationships with key defined contribution and third-party administration (TPA) platforms.”

FRC Predicts Growth in Use of External Managers

The Financial Research Corporation (FRC) predicts that if the market remains stable and does not go through another crisis within the next five years, sub-advised mutual fund and variable annuity assets will grow to $2 trillion by 2014, up from $1 trillion at the end of 2008.

The FRC study, titled “Building a Better Sub‐Advisory Business: Hiring, Retaining, & Firing in a Changing Market,” finds that fund manufacturers continue to consider product performance to be the primary factor in deciding whether to hire, retain, or fire external managers on a fund. However, other factors such as the stability of the sub‐advisory firm, the track record of the portfolio manager, and the quality of the risk management have become more important to the evaluation process since the credit crisis, FRC said.

All of the fund manufacturers surveyed by FRC anticipate merging or liquidating funds in 2009 to 2010. While this will reduce the number of existing funds, FRC said, new domestic and international funds in a variety of asset classes will be rolled out to replace those being merged away, creating a new product landscape in 2010.


Information about obtaining a copy of the report is available here

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