Retirement Industry People Moves – 12/1/23

Principal promotes Branham to national retirement investment director; Natixis bolsters retirement product sales; Voya hires Marchese to lead wealth solutions mid-market sales team.

Principal Asset Management Names National Director of Retirement Investments

Megan Branham

Principal Asset Management promoted Megan Branham to national director of retirement investments, effective October 16, a Principal spokesperson confirmed by email.  

Branham is responsible for leading an investment team that supports Principal-branded products and solutions and sales to advisers, consultants and plan sponsors on Principal’s recordkeeping platform, a Principal spokesperson explained.

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Branham reports to Rob Logan, Principal’s managing director of U.S. retirement. Her previous role was senior investment specialist.

Natixis Investment Managers Names Managing Regional Director

Natixis Investment Managers hired Daniel Schatz as a managing regional director with the firm’s retirement products sales team, a company spokesperson confirmed by email.

Schatz is responsible for sales covering the U.S. Southeast and reports to Bill Slimbaugh, a managing director at Natixis, according to the spokesperson. 

“We were filling an open position on the team, and the objective is to grow our financial adviser-led retirement business in the U.S.,” the spokesperson said. “We’re excited to have someone with significant industry experience in the role.”

Schatz was previously a senior defined contribution investment only sales consultant at Hartford Funds.

Voya Hires Marchese to Lead Wealth Solutions Mid-Market Sales Team

Matt Marchese

Voya Financial has hired Matt Marchese as mid-market sales leader on the company’s wealth solutions team.

Marchese is responsible for leading the wealth solutions mid-market sales team by driving strategic initiatives that include segment-specific pricing analysis, creating greater awareness of Voya’s value and growing brand awareness.

“I’m excited to bring my experience to this role and for the opportunity to be part of the great momentum and strong culture that Voya continues to build upon,” said Marchese in a statement. “I’m eager to partner with colleagues and build new relationships with individuals across all levels of the organization to help drive our business objectives and influence positive outcomes for the Wealth Solutions MidMarket Sales team.

Marchese joins Voya with more than 25 years of experience in the industry, focusing on institutional retirement plan sales, including corporate and nonprofit defined contribution, as well as defined benefit and nonqualified plans in midsize and large markets. Most recently, he held the position of vice president of retirement plan sales at Schwab Retirement Plan Services.

Shareholder Rights, ESG Rules Begin Friday

The new rule will permit the use of ESG considerations in exercising of shareholder rights.

Part of a Department of Labor rule regarding the selection of plan investment and shareholder rights—often called the ESG rule—will be fully in effect on Friday, December 1.

Part of the Final Rule on Prudence and Loyalty in Selecting Plan Investments and Exercising Shareholder Rights has been in effect since January 30, which includes permitting plans governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act to use environmental, social and governance factors in investment selection, including as their qualified default investment alternative. It also permits plans to use a relaxed “tiebreaker” rule which allows them to use non-financial criteria to decide between two investment options that would both equally serve the interests of the plan.

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The second half of the rule, which speaks to shareholder rights and proxy voting, takes effect in December. The DOL removed language from old rules that the department believed incentivized abstentions on shareholder proposals, an excision that will remove a safe harbor voting policy that limited “voting resources to types of proposals that the fiduciary has prudently determined are substantially related to the issuer’s business activities or are expected to have a material effect on the value of the investment.”

Ruth E. Delaney, a partner in K&L Gates LLP, says the rule reiterates the principle that a fiduciary’s duty to manage plan assets includes the management of shareholder rights, including the right to vote proxies.

In the context of pooled investment vehicles, where multiple plans may be subject to proxy voting policies that conflict with the policies of other plans, the manager would be required, to the extent possible, to reconcile conflicting policies and vote proxies proportionately in accordance with each plan’s interest in the vehicle.  However, consistent with longstanding guidance, a manager may, instead, require investors to accept the manager’s own proxy voting policy as a condition of a plan’s investing in such vehicle. 

However, Delaney explains that existing investors are not grandfathered in explicitly by the rule, and managers may need to take steps to get consent from their investors to follow the manager’s proxy voting policy. Delaney says some managers have drafted negative consent forms: Investors already in those funds are assumed to have consented by saying nothing. The DOL declined to explicitly approve of or forbid this approach, according to Delaney.

Fiduciary managers have until Friday to avoid compliance issues by obtaining consent.

Delaney says the rule also permits fiduciaries to use ESG considerations when voting on shareholder proposals and when making recommendations on those votes.

Delaney adds that the rule “codifies longstanding principles” that already existed, such as the notion that fiduciary duty requires the prudent exercise of shareholder rights. Abstentions are permitted in cases where it would be prudent, such as when the voting process would be costly to the plan.

Under the rule, fiduciaries are required to “prudently select and monitor a service provider,” but this does not require them to “monitor in real time every vote.” Instead, the fiduciary must follow a prudent process in picking service providers and must ensure their activities align with their investment policy, Delaney says.

 

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