Deals & People May 13, 2015

SageView Expands California Footprint

Rodney Balbuena has joined SageView Advisory Group in the firm’s newly opened office in Pasadena, California, while Cathy Christ comes to the Irvine office.
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Balbuena joins SageView as managing director in the Pasadena office and will focus on providing quality retirement plan advisory services to corporate and nonprofit plan sponsors. He has more than 20 years’ experience in specialized retirement plan advisory services to mid- and large-sized organizations. Most recently, he served as a retirement investment adviser for the insurance broker Arthur J. Gallagher. Previously, he was a sales director with MetLife. He holds FINRA Series 6, 63 and 65 licenses as well as a State of California insurance license.

Christ, who has more than 18 years’ experience in retirement, joins SageView as a retirement plan consultant in Irvine. She will focus on assisting clients with fiduciary compliance, plan design and management, leading vendor searches, facilitating plan conversion and implementation, delivering investment reviews, and assisting with ongoing plan administration.  She was previously a retirement plan consultant at Arthur J. Gallagher. Christ holds FINRA Series 6, 63 and 65 licenses.

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SageView Advisory Group, headquartered in Irvine, California, is an independent registered investment adviser (RIA). The firm was 2014 winner of the PLANSPONSOR Retirement Plan Multioffice Team of the Year, and provides retirement plan consulting services to more than 650 defined contribution, defined benefit and deferred compensation plans.

The Markets May 13, 2015

April Another Light Trading Month for DC Accounts

April was another light trading month for participants in defined contribution (DC) plans, the Aon Hewitt 401(k) Index reveals.
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On average, 0.026% of 401(k) account balances transferred each day and just three days experienced above-normal trading activity for the month, Aon Hewitt says. When participants made trades they preferred fixed income over equities on about two-thirds of trading days (14 out of 21).

The most popular asset classes for inflows were international ($133 million), GIC/stable value ($65 million) and bond funds ($59 million). The most prevalent classes for outflows were large U.S. equity ($207 million), company stock ($58 million) and money market funds ($34 million).

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Target-date funds continued to receive the majority of new contributions into individuals’ accounts, at $394 million, while large U.S. equity funds saw contributions of $211 million.

The monthly results shows participants’ overall allocation to equities inched up from 66.3% to 66.4% in April, after combining contributions, trades, and market activity. Future contributions to equities decreased slightly from 67.4% at the beginning of April to 67.2% at the end of the month, Aon Hewitt says.

Turning to capital market returns, they were mixed during April 2015. Large cap U.S. equities represented by the S&P 500 Index delivered positive returns—as did international equities represented by the MSCI ACWI ex-U.S. Index. At the same time, U.S. small cap equities (represented by the Russell 2000 Index) and U.S. fixed income (represented by the Barclays Aggregate Index) both fell during the month.

Most defined contribution plan participants had also been content to stay put with their investments in March, following a more volatile start to the year.

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