Deals & People June 19, 2014

OneAmerica Reshuffles Sales Structure

The companies of OneAmerica have implemented a new three-region sales and distribution structure for retirement services.
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Sales and service delivery resources in Dallas, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, San Antonio, San Francisco and Seattle now operate as part of the West region. Staffers in Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Minneapolis and St. Louis are now part of the Central region. The East region covers Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Florida, Nashville, Philadelphia and the Washington, D.C., area

OneAmerica says the new structure will improve geographic proximity for clients and create efficiencies in service delivery. The firm named Paul Citron as vice president of national sales and field service as part of the change—a role in which he will oversee all three sales regions. Citron joined OneAmerica in 2012 as regional vice president and carries over 20 years of retirement plan sales, service and management experience.

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The following sales management and field sales changes have also been announced:

  • Mark Glavin was named vice president of the western region. Glavin joined the companies of OneAmerica in 2005 as vice president national sales and field service after a 23-year career at Principal Financial Group.
  • Pat Kendall is now vice president of the eastern region. Kendall has more than 12 years of retirement sales experience and has held roles at Transamerica, Diversified and MassMutual.
  • Duane Jeffers was named regional vice president and tax exempt specialist for the central region. Jeffers joined OneAmerica in 2012 and has been serving as regional sales director in the Ohio and Michigan regions. He brings 20 years of experience in tax exempt plan sales and support to this new role. Previously, he held roles at Prudential, Great West and Nationwide.
  • Miki Sakata is now regional sales director in northern California and Nevada. Sakata brings more than 17 years of retirement sales experience and has held roles at Prudential, The Standard, Guardian and TransAmerica.

The firm says the expansion will be complete following the end of a search for a vice president for central region sales. More information is available at www.oneamerica.com.

Products June 19, 2014

Sponsors Should Encourage Into-Plan Rollovers

BMO Retirement Services lays out four key reasons asset consolidation benefits participants.
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Encouraging participants to roll assets from a previous employer’s defined contribution (DC) plan reduces the potential for prematurely cashing out, BMO says in a new white paper for sponsors and their consultants, “BMO Defined Contribution IQ: Rollovers.” It is the second in a nine-part, bi-monthly educational series BMO has developed to help them create more successful DC plans, titled Defined Contribution IQ.

Secondly, as plan assets rise, all participants in the plan benefit from lower investment costs, which can have a dramatic impact on retirement outcomes, BMO says. Thirdly, participants benefit from professional oversight, and by bundling their assets, they can see more accurate retirement income projections.

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“The average worker today will work for five to seven employers during his or her lifetime, so the flexibility to transfer retirement savings is extremely valuable,” says Todd Perala, author of the Defined Contribution IQ series and director of strategic initiatives at BMO. “We believe that if plan sponsors can help participants consolidate their retirement saving as they are on-boarded, then employers are really offering the potential for a better retirement to their employees—and doing it in a very economical manner.”

Sponsors can make the process easy by equipping participants with enrollment kits that explain the process simplistically, that include a user-friendly rollover form and that they inform participants they can reach call center reps who can walk them through the process, BMO says. For those employees leaving the company, sponsors should also explain the benefits of their rolling their assets over to their new employer, BMO adds.

Furthermore, to help those employees who are retiring, sponsors should offer funds that deliver periodic payments, even if it means modifying the plan’s design. “This gives retirees a straightforward way to turn their retirement savings into an income stream that replaces their paycheck,” Perala says.

BMO’s first Defined Contribution IQ white paper addressed how automatic features can significantly improve outcomes, encouraging sponsors to automatically enroll participants at a 6% savings rate with annual 1% or 2% escalations, and to use a target-date fund as the qualified default investment alternative.

 

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