Compliance February 29, 2024

William Birdthistle Leaves SEC Post, to Be Replaced by Natasha Vij Greiner

Birdthistle greatly influenced many proposals and rules affecting advisers, including the names rule and the predictive analytics proposal.

Reported by

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced on Wednesday that William Birdthistle, the director of the SEC’s Division of Investment Management, will leave the regulator. He will be replaced by Natasha Vij Greiner, currently the deputy director of the Division of Examinations, effective March 8.

The Division of Investment Management regulates investment advisers and companies, such as mutual funds and other products used by retail investors. Birdthistle first joined the SEC in December 2021.

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

Birdthistle was known for his support of liquidity management reforms to money market funds and open-end funds, and he was an advocate for the swing pricing and hard close proposal which is still pending. He also advocated for the new SEC names rule, which reforms how funds named after a strategy, such as “value,” “growth” or “ESG” are regulated.

In addition, he helped write and pushed for the SEC’s proposals on cybersecurity, custody and predictive analytics, as well the finalized rules on marketing and private fund advisers.

Perhaps the most controversial proposal for which Birdthistle has advocated has been the predictive analytics proposal, which requires advisers to neutralize and eliminate conflicts related to a wide range of technologies. Birdthistle acknowledged in a House of Representatives committee hearing in July 2023 that the breadth of the covered technologies was a concern and invited commenters to recommend how to limit the definition.

Replacement Greiner has been “National Associate Director of the Investment Adviser/Investment Company (IA/IC) examination program, which includes the Private Funds Unit, and is the Associate Director of the Home Office IA/IC examination program,” according to the SEC, and has been with the SEC for 22 years in various roles, including acting chief counsel and assistant chief counsel in the Division of Trading and Markets.

Greiner earned a J.D. from the Catholic University of America and a B.S. from James Madison University.

The agency noted that Birdthistle will be returning to teaching; he had previously been a professor at the Chicago-Kent College of Law.
Products & Services February 29, 2024

Product & Service Launches – 2/29/24

Robinhood kicks off gig workplace IRA offering with employers including Grubhub; The Hartford to offer Origin financial wellness program to participants; and MetLife joins Fidelity's immediate annuity offering.

Reported by

Robinhood Launches IRA for Gig Companies

Robinhood Markets Inc. has furthered its individual retirement account offerings with the launch of Robinhood Retirement For Independent Workers.

The broker/dealer is launching the offering to employees of Grubhub, Taskrabbit and Gopuff, it announced Thursday. Those employees will have access to a match from Robinhood of 1% to 3% for the first year of contributions and unlimited one-on-one financial counseling from GreenPath Financial Wellness.

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

Robinhood also noted “easy onboarding” for the independent workers at the companies, with a rollout to workers “soon,” according to the announcement. Robinhood expects to add more companies in the future.

The program is an extension of Robinhood Retirement, launched in January 2023, which consists of an IRA with a 1% match. That platform had gathered nearly $1 billion in assets as of August 2023

The Hartford Partners With Origin on Financial Wellness Tool

Employee benefits and insurance firm The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. is partnering with Origin on a financial wellness tool for employers to offer workers.

The Hartford will give group benefit clients access to Origin’s Financial Planning platform to offer financial education, budgeting and planning tools to help their employees manage personal finances and retirement planning.

The Financial Planning platform provides the tools at no initial cost to users; employers or their employees have the option to purchase additional services, such as tax filing and access to a certified financial planner for one-on-one advice.

“Financial stress has a major impact on employer productivity,” said Matt Watson, the founder and CEO of Origin, in a statement. “Even though financial wellness starts with a paycheck, many employers aren’t providing financial wellness assistance to their employees. Origin’s new relationship with The Hartford will help increase employee access to high-quality financial planning.”

MetLife Joins Fidelity’s New Retirement Lifetime Income Offering

MetLife has joined other insurance companies offering annuities to retirement plan participants via Fidelity Investments’ Guaranteed Income Direct program.

MetLife’s offering will join other insurers, including Pacific Life, Prudential Financial and Western & Southern Financial Group, in making their immediate annuities available to plan sponsors to, in turn, offer participants. The solution allows participants to purchase a recommended annuity through the insurer to annuitize any portion of their retirement savings; funds not used to purchase the annuity will remain in the workplace retirement plan.

MetLife cited one of its studies noting that about one in three retirees (34%) who took a lump sum from their defined contribution plan depleted the money in an average of five years.

“Having a guaranteed stream of income can help retirees budget for their day-to-day expenses and protect against depleting their savings too quickly,” said Melissa Moore, a senior vice president and head of annuities at MetLife, in a statement.

T. Rowe Price to Use Clearwater Analytics’ Stable Value Investment Solution

T. Rowe Price has selected Clearwater Analytics’ stable value investment selection services to expand its insurance-backed fixed-income investment options to clients.

“Clearwater for Stable Value” will provide T. Rowe Price with services that include the creation of custom trade tickets for investment contract issuers and other third parties, the firms noted. That will enable T. Rowe Price to add to its stable value technology with a single software-as-a-service solution to teams with the same reconciled investment data each day.

The solution will also give T. Rowe Price a view of market and contract values, accounting, external manager data, crediting rate calculations and streamlined contract issuer trade documents, according to the announcement.

“Clearwater for Stable Value is the technology that will allow us to advance our stable value fund operations and support our continued business growth,” said Antonio ‘Tony’ Luna, T. Rowe Price’s head of stable asset management, in a statement.




«