Retirement Industry People Moves – 9/29/23

Thornburg names Zinkula new CEO as Brady exits; Joe Urwitz joins Crowell & Moring; Cognizant announces Dalal as CFP; and more.


Thornburg Names Zinkula New CEO as Brady Exits

Thornburg Investment Management Inc., an investment firm overseeing $42 billion in client assets, named Mark Zinkula as its new president and CEO on Friday to replace Jason Brady, whose departure was announced in May.

Zinkula was chosen after “an extensive global search process” and will join Thornburg’s board of directors, according to the announcement. He was formerly CEO for Legal & General Investment Management, which has $1.4 trillion in assets under management.

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“Mark has strong strategic capabilities and exceptional leadership qualities,” Thornburg Chairman Garrett Thornburg said in a statement. “He has a deep understanding of investment management and an excellent record of driving organic business growth across client channels and asset classes.”

Brady’s resignation notice came after a complaint was filed by a Thornburg employee in New Mexico District Court alleging that Brady promoted a romantic partner at the firm and fired the employee when the employee raised the issue to management. The case is Troy Statczar v. Thornburg Investment Management Inc., et al.

Benefits, Compensation Lawyer Urwitz Joins Crowell & Moring

Joe Urwitz

Joe Urwitz will join law firm Crowell & Moring LLP as a partner in its tax group, guiding clients on executive compensation and employee benefits issues in M&A, private equity and capital markets transactions.

“We are focused on expanding our transactional tax practice, and Joe’s experience is key in taking our benefits practice to the next level,” Christine Lane, co-chair of the firm’s tax group, said in a statement. “Joe deepens our bench strength to handle our increasing flow of complex corporate transactional work.”

Urwitz represents a range of Fortune 50 companies in private equity, technology and health care. Urwitz also provides counsel on ERISA fiduciary and other matters: deferred compensation arrangements, equity award and bonus plan design, employment and severance arrangements, as well as compensation and benefits issues affecting tax-exempt entities.

“I was drawn to Crowell for its strong collaborative culture,” Urwitz said in a statement. “I’m excited to use my experience to continue to expand Crowell’s compensations and benefits practice.”

Cognizant Appoints Dalal as CFP

Jatin Dalal

Cognizant announced the appointment of Jatin Dalal as chief financial officer, with the appointment effective in December 2023.

Dalal will report to Ravi Kumar S, Cognizant’s CEO. Dalal will oversee Cognizant’s worldwide financial planning and analysis; accounting and controllership; tax, treasury and internal audit; corporate development; investor relations; and enterprise risk management functions. Dalal will succeed Jan Siegmund, who intends to retire in early 2024.

Dalal joins Cognizant from Wipro, a publicly traded multinational technology services and consulting company, where he had served as CFO since April 2015 and assumed additional responsibilities as president beginning in December 2019. Previously, he was CFO of Wipro’s global IT business from 2011 to 2015 in Bangalore, India.

“Jatin is a highly experienced technology services CFO with a proven track record of financial and operational success in a complex and quickly evolving industry,” Kumar S said in a statement. “We are pleased to welcome Jatin to Cognizant.”

Advisor360 Appoints Fanning to Board of Directors

Mike Fanning

has been appointed to the board of directors of Advisor360 LLC, a provider of integrated software and technology for enterprise wealth management organizations.

“We are honored that Mike has joined our Board of Directors as Advisor360 enters into an exciting new phase of growth and expansion,” Rich Napolitano, CEO of Advisor360, said in a statement.

Fanning recently completed a 17-year stint at MassMutual, where he served as the head of its domestic insurance division. As a pioneer in the insurance sector, Fanning extended MassMutual’s offering of protection and wealth management solutions and played a key role in improving the company’s technology platform to satisfy adviser and client needs.

“I experienced first-hand how Advisor360°’s wealth solutions set up MassMutual’s advisors for success—it was game-changing,” Fanning said in a statement. “The transformative power of this company’s offering to the industry is real.”

Student Loan Repayments May Crimp Retirement Savers, Including Gen X

New studies from Nationwide and National Institute show widespread impact of student loan repayments on everybody from recent grads to Gen Xers.


Student loan repayments coming back online in October could have major implications for the retirement plan industry, as participants across generations shift their financial planning to meet the obligations, according to recent research and experts.

According to research released Friday, student loan debt is not just hitting recent grads but will also impact older generations and possibly limit how much they can sock away during their prime working years. Among workers in Generation X, 13% still have student loan debt, with average balances of slightly more than $40,000 and a median of $25,000, according to the latest analysis from the National Institute on Retirement Security.

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“Gen Xers are fast approaching retirement age, so it’s troubling that some are still carrying student loan debt,” Tyler Bond, the NIRS research director, said in a statement.

Not Just Recent Grads

The typical Gen X household with student loan debt has $40,000 in retirement savings. However, those households had consistently lower average amounts of retirement savings when compared with their counterparts without student loan debt. NIRS suggested that student loan debt may be hindering retirement savings.

Gen Xers in the study were 62% white, and they made up 59% of Gen Xers without student loan debt. Black Gen Xers made up 10% of the age group, but they represented 22% of Gen Xers with student loan debt. Asian-American Gen Xers were the least likely to have student loan debt. Additionally, women were more likely to have student loan debt (60%) than men (40%).

Higher-earning Gen Xers were more likely to have student loan debt. Meanwhile, Gen Xers with student loan debt had higher sponsorship rates (76%) and participation rates (66%) in employer-sponsored retirement plans.

“The good news is that attending college has increased Gen Xers’ earning power and access to workplace retirement plans,” Bond. “But every dollar they continue to spend on college loans is money that could have been invested in their retirement. Retirement is going to be a nightmare for too many Gen Xers, and those who continue to have the burden of debt could be saving more for this major challenge.”

In a separate conversation also linked to new student loan findings, Eric Stevenson, president of Nationwide’s retirement solutions division, says employers must focus on student loan repayments for participants from multiple generations, who will be managing those payments, interest rate increases and inflation all at once.

“We always think about student loans for people who are just graduating, but that’s not the case,” Stevenson says. “We, as recordkeepers, need to encourage fund sponsors to adopt the student loan match. I’d like to think of it almost as if it were a requirement.”

The SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 gives employers the option to match student loan payments with contributions to workplace retirement savings plans, starting in 2024, though many in the industry expect offerings to be rolled out slowly as advisers, recordkeepers and plan sponsors must align before offering the option in workplace benefit plans.

Stevenson says that the industry will not see the impact of the student loan payments returning immediately. But in six months, plan sponsors and advisers should expect to see savings rates drop as people shift to paying off loans.

Making Adjustments

In research on student loans released Wednesday by Nationwide, the firm found that one in 10 people with student loans is aged 45 or older.

In a survey of 1,200 retirement plan participants fielded in August, researchers found that employees 45 and older are considering moves to manage their student debt that will hurt long-term financial strategies, including:

  • 29% are planning to adjust their retirement plan contributions to keep up with student loan payments;
  • 49% are reconsidering the feasibility of their retirement goals in light of their student loan debt; and
  • 59% are considering additional sources of income or side gigs to keep paying off student loans and saving for retirement.

“I don’t think employers are going to want to go and increase everyone’s salary [in response to student loans returning,” adds Amelia Dunlap, Nationwide’s vice president of retirement solutions marketing. “The student loan matching is a way that employers can still provide a responsive benefit to your employees without having to do a wholesale compensation increase.”

The findings are contained in a new fact sheet, “The Impact of Student Loan Debt on Retirement Preparedness for Generation X,” which supplements a recent NIRS report, “The Forgotten Generation: Generation X.”

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