Best in Class
On Wednesday, March 27, approximately 500 people gathered in New York City to attend the 2013 PLANSPONSOR/PLANADVISER Awards for Excellence. The annual awards dinner was especially significant this year, as it celebrated the 20th anniversary of PLANSPONSOR, sister publication of PLANADVISER.
The evening began by honoring Charles Ruffel with The Vision Award. Ruffel is the founder and director of Asset International Inc., parent company of PLANSPONSOR and PLANADVISER.
From 1986 to 2009, Ruffel was CEO of Asset International, which he developed as a financial information company best known for its plethora of media products focused on the pension and retirement industry. He is a leading authority on the key issues and emerging trends that face the retirement and asset management industries and has been awarded the Retirement Savings Advocate of the Year award by the National Defined Contribution Council.
Today, Ruffel is the managing partner at Kudu Advisors, a strategic mergers and acquisitions advisory firm, which he founded in 2010. He serves on the advisory boards of ASPire Financial Services, CAPTRUST Financial Advisors, Case Interactive Media and Schwab Exchange-Traded Funds.
Ruffel holds a Master of Arts degree in history from Cambridge University and a Master of Science in journalism from Columbia University.
In addition to The Vision Award, two Lifetime Achievement awards were presented at the dinner. These annual recognitions, given by PLANSPONSOR and PLANADVISER, represent extraordinary service to the retirement plan industry and the tens of millions of individuals who get the opportunity to retire with dignity.
The 2013 PLANSPONSOR Lifetime Achievement Award was given to Joe Mansueto, chairman and CEO of Morningstar Inc. The 2013 PLANADVISER Lifetime Achievement Award was given to Randall Long, founder and managing principal of SageView Advisory Group.
Plan Sponsors of the Year
Each year, the editors of PLANSPONSOR honor those employers that demonstrate leadership in providing a more secure retirement for workers. Strong plan metrics, relevant plan design and a commitment to participant education are the hallmarks of distinction seen among PLANSPONSOR’s Plan Sponsor of the Year award winners.
This year’s “class” of PLANSPONSOR Plan Sponsor of the Year winners and finalists offer us inspiring stories of plan sponsors in various industries who have distinguished their programs in unique and quantifiable ways—and with demonstrable results. This year’s awards were given across five categories: Corporate 401(k) >$50mm in Assets, Corporate 401(k) <$50mm in Assets, 403(b), Public Defined Contribution (DC) and Defined Benefit (DB).
Finalists in the Corporate 401(k) >$50mm in Assets category were: CACI International Inc., Commercial Metals Company, Roche and Intersil Corporation. The winner was Sanofi U.S., based in Bridgewater, New Jersey.
Finalists in the Corporate 401(k) <$50mm in Assets category were: Gables Residential Services, Platte Valley Financial Service Companies Inc. and Stanislaus Farm Supply. The winner was Jacobs Entertainment Inc., based in Golden, Colorado.
Finalists in the 403(b) category were: Catholic Health East, Syracuse University and University of California. The winner was Mayo Clinic Health System–Albert Lea in Albert Lea, Minnesota.
The finalist in the Public Defined Contribution category was the U.S. Conference of Mayors and in the Defined Benefit category was General Motors Company. The winner in each of those categories was State of Missouri Deferred Compensation Plan in Jefferson City, Missouri, and Springfield, Massachusetts-based Baystate Health, respectively.
Adviser Recognition
Many advisers were in attendance at the event. Members of the PLANADVISER Top 100 were recognized, as were the five individual finalists, six team finalists and three multioffice team finalists for the PLANSPONSOR Retirement Plan Adviser of the Year awards (see 42).
Additionally, two more names were added to the PLANADVISER Hall of Fame: Stace Hilbrant, the winner of the 2012 PLANSPONSOR Retirement Plan Adviser of the Year, and Graystone Consulting, the winner of the 2012 PLANSPONSOR Retirement Plan Adviser Team of the Year. To close out the evening, Brian O’Keefe, from Asset International research and surveys, presented the PLANSPONSOR DC Survey Standouts.
2013 PLANADVISER Lifetime Achievement Award
At the 2013 PLANSPONSOR/PLANADVISER Awards for Excellence, the annual PLANADVISER Lifetime Achievement Award was given to Randall Long, founder and managing principal of SageView Advisory Group.
Long, also a member of SageView’s internal investment committee, formed SageView by assembling a team of seasoned financial advisers and professionals from Mellon Consulting (formerly Buck Consulting), First Financial Resources, Benefits Funding Services Group and Smith Barney.
He has more than 25 years of experience in retirement plans and has provided consulting and fiduciary advisory services to more than 200 major corporations in the areas of plan design, investment consulting, recordkeeping, compliance, employee education and communication. He has extensive experience in the oversight and operations of retirement plans, advising and assisting plan fiduciaries to understand and meet their responsibilities.
Long earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from San Diego State University and the Accredited Investment Fiduciary designation from the Center for Fiduciary Studies–University of Pittsburgh. He is a member of the CFA Institute and the American Society of Pension Professionals and Actuaries (ASPPA).
In bestowing the award, Alison Cooke Mintzer, editor-in-chief of PLANSPONSOR and PLANADVISER, said “SageView Advisory, which began as a single advisory firm in California, provides comprehensive customized retirement plan consulting, actuarial consulting, executive benefits and wealth management services to clients throughout the United States. As founder of the firm, Randy remains the heart and soul of the firm as it has grown from a singular advisory firm to a nationally recognized brand with 15 offices across the country. Randy’s vision for how teams should serve plan sponsor clients serves as a model to others.”