Retirement Industry People Moves

T. Rowe Price brings in new head of CEDT Innovation Center; Kestra Financial adds specialists to adviser platform; USI Consulting hires assistant vice president of retirement services; and more.

T. Rowe Price recently named Rajesh Eshwar as the head of client experience and delivery transformation (CEDT).

In this new role, Eshwar leads the firm’s CEDT Innovation Center, which focuses on delivering new client experiences using design and technology developments. Based in Maryland, Eshwar reports to Scott David, head of individual and retirement plan services, and works with leaders across the organization.

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Eshwar joins T. Rowe Price from Capgemini Group, a consulting and digital services provider, where he served as executive vice president for North America. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay.

Kestra Financial Adds Specialists to Adviser Platform

Kestra Financial Inc. has announced the addition of MidAtlantic Retirement Planning Specialists to its independent adviser platform.

Led by Thom Shumosic, the financial professionals of MidAtlantic Retirement Planning Specialists are focused on helping people save and invest to achieve their retirement goals through individual retirement accounts (IRAs) and company 401(k) plans.

MidAtlantic Retirement Planning Specialists was founded on the premise that retirement investments are among the most important assets clients have, and that their clients’ needs should always come first, the firm says.  

USI Consulting Hires Assistant VP of Retirement Services

USI Consulting Group announced that Gilles Hudelot has joined the company as assistant vice president of retirement services, based in Dallas, Texas.

Hudelot has over 25 years of experience working with individual and employer sponsored retirement plans in both the private and public sector, spending the last six years as a retirement plan specialist for a national broker/dealer working with advisers and CPAs throughout the country. He has extensive knowledge of the products/services available in the marketplace and consults on fiduciary coverage, vendor selection, plan design, investments and employee education.

StoneStreet Rebrands as Services are Expanded

StoneStreet Advisor Group has announced it will begin doing business as StoneStreet Renaissance (SS/RBA).

The new branding accompanies an expanded offering of services designed to deliver a total value proposition to financial and human resources executives and teams responsible for their organization’s benefit programs. In addition to the current suite of service offerings centered on the successful operation of a company’s retirement benefits programs, SS/RBA has partnered with Financial Finesse to offer financial wellness program in the U.S. to companies of all sizes.

SS/RBA also expanded their service offerings to include health savings accounts (HSAs), student loan consolidation guidance, and individual wealth management services to work towards their goal of offering a more holistic, comprehensive path to financial independence.

VALIC Names New VP for West Coast Region

VALIC, a division of AIG’s Life and Retirement business, has named Chris Somers as vice president, business development, for the West Coast region.

Somers will work closely with advisers, consultants, and plan sponsors in Southern California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona and Hawaii to secure new group relationships for VALIC. 

Somers joins VALIC from Lincoln Financial Group, where he served as regional vice president for institutional retirement distribution. He previously held roles at PIMCO, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and Fidelity. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Marist College in New York and his master’s of business administration from St. Mary’s College of California.

Glenmede Investment Management Appoints Former Director to Recently Created Position

Glenmede Investment Management LP (GIM), a privately owned, independent asset management firm, has announced the appointment of Samantha Lowry as director of Institutional Markets.

Lowry will focus on delivering GIM’s investment capabilities to a broad institutional audience, including U.S. and global institutional consultants. Lowry’s role is a newly created position that expands the firm’s distribution team and provides increased depth to support institutional relationship building.

Lowry most recently served as the director of institutional relationship management for Penn Capital Management, where she was a senior member of the distribution team and provided guidance on the development, launch and ongoing communications related to firm strategies. She has also held senior business development roles at Philadelphia International Advisors and Aberdeen Asset Management.

Lowry received a bachelor’s of arts degree in English from Temple University, as well as a master’s of business administration in management from Saint Joseph’s University.

Past Regional Director Joins PEI in Leadership Role

Portfolio Evaluations Inc. (PEI), an institutional investment and retirement plan consulting firm, has announced the addition of Laura Grassi to the business development team.

Grassi joins PEI in a leadership role as director of business development, where she will oversee the firm’s efforts in securing new business opportunities within existing and new market segments. 

Grassi comes to PEI with 15 years of experience working within the retirement plan industry. She started her career at ING Financial Advisers as a retirement plans wholesaler covering the state of New Jersey. She then moved to Empower Retirement/Great West Financial, where she maintained and grew their defined contribution (DC) plan business. Most recently, Grassi served as the regional director of sales at Pentegra Retirement Services, developing sales of ERISA [Employee Retirement Income Security Act] plan solutions through advisers, broker/dealers and financial institutions. 

Franklin Templeton Hires Two Senior Officials to Multi-Asset Solutions Group

Franklin Templeton Investments has announced the appointment of two senior hires to its multi-asset solutions group. Gene Podkaminer will join as head of multi-asset research strategies and, as announced earlier this month, Wylie Tollette will rejoin Franklin Templeton as head of client investment solutions.

Both will step into newly created roles that report to Ed Perks, EVP/CIO, Franklin Templeton multi-asset solutions. Podkaminer and Tollette will join the company on January 8, 2018.

Podkaminer will oversee multi-asset research strategies, including markets, asset class and manager research for the group. In this capacity, he will be a key contributor to the asset allocation strategy for investment solutions managed by the multi-asset solutions team. Podkaminer was most recently a senior vice president in Callan’s capital markets research group. In this role, he partnered with asset owners on strategic investment planning, including asset allocation and investment manager structure, and provided custom research on a variety of investment topics. Prior to joining Callan in 2010, he spent nearly a decade with Barclays Global Investors as a senior strategist in its client advisory group, where he advised some of the world’s largest and most sophisticated pension plans, nonprofits, and sovereign wealth funds. 

Podkaminer received a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of San Francisco and an MBA from Yale University. He holds a chartered financial analyst designation. 

Tollette’s responsibilities will include oversight of client investment solution development for Franklin Templeton’s multi-asset solutions business. He will partner closely with the company’s global distribution groups on all solutions-related opportunities across a broad range of clients.

Tollette most recently served as chief operating investment officer for CalPERS. He brings close to 25 years of financial services experience—almost two decades of those years spent with Franklin Templeton. Prior to leaving in 2014, he served as head of Franklin Templeton’s performance analytics and investment risk group. Tollette earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of California, Davis, and a master’s degree from the University of London. He holds a chartered financial analyst designation and is a certified public accountant.

Divorce and Failing Health Amid Overlooked Retirement Roadblocks

Clients and advisers alike often overlook the possibility of divorce or losing a spouse in their financial planning, according to TD Ameritrade’s latest survey.

TD Ameritrade’s Financial Challenges of Divorce and Widowhood survey of 2,000 adults ages 37 and older gives insight into the financial lives of the 25 million divorced and 14.5 million widows/widowers in the U.S.

The analysis is stark in some respects, but also includes points of optimism. Overall, according to survey results, the “unfortunate reality is that approximately four in 10 marriages eventually end in divorce and about a quarter of Americans age 65 and older are widowed.” And so these issues of are paramount importance for all advisers and clients to consider.

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Naturally this may be a challenging conversation for some advisers or clients, but researchers argue it does not have to be: “Considering divorce or the loss of a spouse is a smart addition to any long-term financial plan. It’s no different than planning for things like a major illness, disability or potential long-term care needs.”

As it stands today, married couples are not sufficiently addressing this topic with their advisers. Fully two-thirds of married individuals say they don’t have a financial plan in place in the event of a divorce or becoming widowed. Despite the lack of planning, seven in 10 men and six in 10 women also say they are confident in their abilities to manage their own financial situation in the event of a divorce or a spouse passing away.

TD Ameritrade researchers warn this task often proves far more difficult and damaging than couples anticipate: “Married individuals report an annual personal income of $61,700. That is $13,100 more than widows/widowers and $9,800 more than those who are divorced.”

David Lynch, managing director and head of branches for TD Ameritrade, says advance planning could provide a much needed boost in financial security for those who “unexpectedly end up alone at any phase of their lives. Compared to the 43% of married Americans who currently feel financially secure, just a quarter of divorced people say the same. In an average month, nearly half of divorced individuals are not saving or investing any of their take-home pay, versus 32% for their married peers.”

The financial implications of losing a spouse

The survey data shows only two in five divorced individuals expect to “fully retire,” compared with 47% for married couples. At the same time, just three in 10 divorced Americans expect to be “very financially secure” in retirement, versus 52% for married respondents.

“On average, women may outlive their husbands by five years or more. And though the average age for becoming widowed is 59, it can happen at any time in your married life,” Lynch warns. “Married people of all ages should take steps now to ensure they are involved in both big and small family financial matters. They should understand their household assets and liabilities and, ideally, consider establishing multiple income streams that would help them better control their financial futures.”

Additional survey findings show about half of divorced individuals are worried about running out of money in retirement. Nearly four in 10 widows feel financially secure currently and slightly more expect to be very financially secure in retirement—both sharp increases compared to their divorced counterparts.

Widowed Americans, on average, expect that 46% of their retirement income will come from Social Security, while their married peers expect only 29% of their retirement income would come from Social Security.

The full report is available for download here.

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