Deals & People January 19, 2011

Russell Appoints New Director of Alternative Investments

Russell Investments has appointed Darren Spencer as director, alternative investments in its Americas Institutional consulting group.
Reported by

Spencer will be responsible for directing the development and implementation of alternative investment strategies for Russell’s consulting clients in North America. Previously, he worked as a director for a boutique hedge fund of fund provider in the U.S. and as global head of alternative investments for Aon Investment Consulting.    He will be based in Russell’s New York office.

A press release said Spencer was chief architect of Aon’s alternative investment research process and also a primary consultant on alternative investing for Aon’s North American consulting clients.  

For more stories like this, sign up for the PLANADVISERdash daily newsletter.

Russell now has regional consulting alternative directors in the Americas, EMEA, Australasia and Japan/Northeast Asia. According to the announcement, over the course of a multi-year hiring effort, Russell will continue to bolster its resources and capabilities across the full range of alternative investments, including hedge funds, private equity, real estate, commodities, infrastructure and other higher-alpha strategies.
Compliance January 19, 2011

GAO Makes Recommendations, Stops Short of New SRO

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has published its report on financial planning regulation, as mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act, and found “an additional layer of regulation” is not needed.   
Reported by

The GAO report said that most services rendered by financial planners, whether working as investment advisers, broker/dealers, or insurance agents, are covered by a regulatory agency.  However, the report added that “the attention paid to enforcing existing regulation can vary and certain consumer protection issues remain.” The report outlined three areas of concern:

  • Consumers may be unclear when a financial planner is being held to a fiduciary standard, especially when that planner is providing multiple services.
  • Financial planners can market themselves under numerous titles and designations that vary significantly in training and expertise, but consumers may not know the differences.
  • The SEC does not keep a detailed record on complaints, examination results, and enforcement activities relating to financial planners; therefore, the extent of the problem is not fully known.   

Several solutions have been discussed to address these issues, said the report, such as instituting a self-regulating organization to oversee financial planners/investment advisers.  However, “a majority of the regulatory agencies and financial services industry representatives GAO spoke with did not favor significant structural change to the overall regulation of financial planners because they said existing regulation provides adequate coverage of most financial planning activities,” the GAO concluded.

Never miss a story — sign up for PLANADVISER newsletters to keep up on the latest retirement plan adviser news.

The GAO did provide three recommendations to solve the areas of concern:

  • The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) should take steps to assess consumers’ understanding of the standards of care with regard to the sale of insurance products, such as annuities, and take actions as appropriate to address problems revealed in this assessment.
  • The SEC should investigate to what extent investors understand the titles and designations used by financial planners and any implications a lack of understanding may have for consumers’ investment decisions.
  • The SEC should collaborate with state securities regulators to try to better understand the extent of problems specifically involving financial planners and financial planning services.

The report listed all of these recommendations as being “in process.”  The SEC was also mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act to publish reports, see “SEC Reports on B/Ds and Advisers Expected Soon.“

«