On the Move
SageView Enhances Wealth Management Leadership Team
Matt Cosgriff, senior vice president and head of wealth management advisory services, SageView
Sophie Benander, vice president of wealth management client experience, SageView
SageView Advisory Group hired Matt Cosgriff as senior vice president and head of wealth management advisory services in Minneapolis, and Sophie Benander as vice president of wealth management client experience in Dallas.
Reporting to chief operating officer Jorge Bernal, Cosgriff and Benander will help to expand the firm’s position in institutional retirement and wealth management.
“Matt and Sophie deliver an excellent balance of experience and drive,” said CEO John Longley in a statement. “I am confident that their talent and leadership will have a significant impact on helping achieve our business goals.”
Cosgriff comes to SageView from BerganKDV, where he served as director of wealth management.
Benander, before joining SageView, served as the assistant director of wealth management at Adviser Investments.
Mesirow’s Retirement Advisory Acquired by Creative Planning
Carly Bell, partner, head of retirement services, Creative Planning LLC
Creative Planning LLC, a registered investment advisory and retirement plan services firm headquartered in Chicago, has acquired Mesirow Financial Inc.’s retirement plan advisory division. The deal will bring to Creative Planning more than 350 retirement plans and $13 billion in assets under advisement and management, according to Creative Planning’s announcement.
Carly Bell, a partner in, and head of retirement services at, Creative Planning, led the transaction. “The acquisition of Mesirow’s corporate retirement team is additive to our existing retirement-services offering as it brings together industry thought leaders who will continue to expand the comprehensive services available from Creative Planning to plan sponsors and participants,” Bell said in a statement.
The deal adds to an active acquisition period for CEO Peter Mallouk and the firm. “We’re excited to welcome Mesirow’s impressive corporate retirement advisory services team into the Creative Planning family,” Mallouk said in a statement.
Savvy Advisors Adds Founding Principal Wealth Manager
Marisa (Maya) Joelson, founding principal wealth manager and global investment strategist, Savvy Advisors Inc
Savvy Advisors Inc., a registered investment adviser affiliated with Savvy Wealth Inc., hired Marisa (Maya) Joelson as a founding principal wealth manager and global investment strategist in Washington, D.C.
Joelson joined Savvy after having worked as an adviser at Perigon Wealth Management and Merrill Lynch. In 2017, she founded Meta Point Advisors as her platform to share thought leadership content related to current events and their impact on the global market.
“As we continue our efforts to reshape the wealth management industry, it is imperative that we recruit professionals who can offer in-depth analysis and informed recommendations,” Ritik Malhotra, co-founder and CEO of Savvy Wealth, said in a statement.
“What Maya brings to the table is truly unique. With her deep understanding of economic affairs and her knack for simplifying complex concepts, we are confident she will help us build a future where advice is seamlessly integrated, personalized and centered on delivering extraordinary client experiences.”
Retirement Advisor Council Elects Board Members
Amy Glynn, managing partner and chief financial wellness officer at Viking Cove Institute
Kelly Famiglietta, partner in Charles Stephen & Co. Inc.
Members of the Retirement Advisor Council elected Kelly Famiglietta, a partner in Charles Stephen & Co. Inc. in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to the board representing advisers.
“The pandemic profoundly affected the very nature of work in the U.S. and, by extension, relationships between employers and employees,” Famiglietta said in a statement. “I would like to be at the forefront of our industry’s discussions of how qualified plans can adapt to this new dynamic and continue to add value for both participants and plan sponsors.”
In addition, Amy Glynn, managing partner and chief financial wellness officer at Viking Cove Institute in Boston, was elected as a board member representing practice leaders. “RAC’s membership is diverse and engaged,” said Glynn in a statement. “We are positioned to help retirement plan consultants expand their practices, scope and reach while adding value and enhancing participant outcomes.”
Hub International Adds Renaissance Benefit Advisors
Ellen Lander, principal and founder of Renaissance Benefit Advisors Group, LLC.
Hub International Ltd. announced it has acquired the assets of Renaissance Benefit Advisors Group LLC. RBA, located in New York City and Atlanta, is a retirement plan consulting and institutional investment advisory firm. Founder Ellen Lander and the RBA team will join Hub Mid-Atlantic. “We’re excited to be joining the Hub team,” Lander said in a statement. “Hub shares our deep commitment to provide an unsurpassed level of proactive service, and we’re confident that they’re the right choice in supporting us and our clients as we continue to grow.”
“The commitment of Ellen and the RBA team to being a trusted fiduciary partner to their clients makes them an excellent fit for Hub as we continue to grow our presence in the Northeast,” said Joe DeNoyior, president of Hub Retirement and Private Wealth, in a statement.
CAPTRUST Adds Chief Compliance Officer
Ann Leddy, chief compliance officer, CAPTRUST
Ann Leddy joined CAPTRUST in September and serves as chief compliance officer, based in New York City. She leads the firm’s compliance department, which is responsible for the firm’s regulatory compliance program, including designing and implementing policies, procedures and controls to comply with applicable regulatory requirements; monitoring and testing for adherence to those controls; and furthering the firm’s culture of compliance.
CAPTRUST’s former chief compliance officer Denise Buchanan remains at the firm as the senior director of compliance.
Leddy has broad experience across the financial services industry as a compliance leader and regulatory counsel. Most recently, she led retail client experience compliance at Vanguard and, before that, was global head of policies and procedures and compliance training at BlackRock.
More On The Moves
➜ CAPTRUST Financial Advisors added The Normann Financial Group, a retirement plan and wealth advisory firm in Sanford, North Carolina, overseeing more than $1.3 billion in assets. The firm is led by founder Kel Normann, who started in the business in 2015, and includes nine additional colleagues that will join CAPTRUST. This deal expands CAPTRUST’s footprint across North Carolina beyond the firm’s nearby Raleigh headquarters and existing offices in Charlotte, Greensboro and Wilmington. The registered investment advisory has acquired 71 firms since 2006.➜ Mercer Global Advisors Inc., a wealth management and financial planning advisory, acquired Singh Advisory LLC, a wealth management firm in Denver. Singh Advisory was founded by Parshad Singh in 2018 and currently has assets under management of approximately $60 million. Singh said Mercer Advisors was appealing for being a national family-office registered investment adviser with dozens of in-house estate-planning lawyers. He noted that it employs a dedicated team of certified public accountants and other tax professionals to provide turnkey tax return preparation for the firm’s clients, as well as providing corporate trustee and other services in house.
➜ Edelman Financial Engines LLC acquired PRW Wealth Management LLC, a registered investment adviser headquartered in Quincy, Massachusetts. PRW manages more than $500 million in assets under management for approximately 200 clients, including individuals, families, endowments, foundations and business owners. The firm provides a range of wealth management capabilities, focusing on strategic planning, investment management and wealth transfer, according to Edelman’s announcement. PRW is the fifth acquisition made by Edelman in the past 13 months, continuing the expansion of its wealth planning capabilities across key regions nationwide.
➜ The National Association of Government Defined Contribution Administrators promoted Kelly Hiers to NAGDCA executive board president. Hiers currently serves as DC plans administrator at the Virginia Retirement System. She replaces Sandy Blair, the administrator for the California Savings Plus program, and is replaced as executive board vice president by Mo Raihan, chief retirement officer at NYC Health + Hospitals.
➜ Jed Finn is set to lead Morgan Stanley’s wealth management division, reporting to recently named co-President Andy Saperstein, who made the announcement. Finn, who joined Morgan Stanley in 2011, will be promoted from his current position of chief operating officer of wealth management and will be second-in-command to Saperstein. “His appointment is a natural progression in what has been an outstanding career and will leverage his knowledge of the full range of our wealth management businesses,” Saperstein wrote in a memo obtained by PLANADVISER. Finn will assume his role the same day as will Ted Pick, the incoming CEO, as part of a redesigned senior leadership team. In October, Morgan Stanley announced that co-president Pick would replace James Gorman as CEO of the global financial services firm.
➜ Cathy Marasco, current associate vice president of retirement solutions product development, was selected to lead Nationwide’s new protected retirement team. “I’m excited to see rapidly growing interest in protected income solutions from both retirement savers and plan sponsors,” Marasco said in a statement. Marasco will integrate and build a coordinated team responsible for advancing awareness and adoption of in-plan guarantee solutions.
➜ Sunitha Thomas has been named co-head of the newly formed wealth client group at Northern Trust Asset Management. In this newly created role, Thomas will provide leadership to serving NTAM’s Northern Trust Wealth Management clients and strengthening NTAM’s presence in the intermediary wealth management industry. Thomas will report to NTAM President Daniel Gamba. Thomas joined Northern Trust more than 20 years ago, spending 15 years in wealth management as a regional senior investment officer and national portfolio adviser and five years as a fundamental equity researcher.
➜ The Certified Financial Planner Board appointed Kevin Roth as managing director of research, effective mid-October. Roth is responsible for leading the CFP Board research agenda, assessing the impact of financial planning on clients’ well-being, translating research findings into actionable recommendations and collaborating with CFP Board partners to share data through publications, presentations and other channels. Roth was previously vice president of research, evaluation and technology at the National Recreation and Park Association.
➜ Principal Asset Management promoted Andrew Matos to chief financial officer for workplace savings and retirement solutions. In his new position, he takes on additional responsibilities to his previous role as head of stock plan services, overseeing employee stock ownership plan and equity compensation plan capabilities. Matos reports to Lou Flori, chief financial officer for retirement and income solutions, and Teresa Hassara, senior vice president of workplace savings and retirement solutions at Principal.