Great-West Financial has named Edmund F. Murphy III as the new president of the Denver-based firm's combined retirement organization.
The announcement comes on the heels of Great-West recently finalizing its acquisition of J.P. Morgan's large-market recordkeeping business, and after Great-West earlier integrated its retirement business with Putnam Investments.
Great-West is now the second-largest provider in the U.S. defined contribution market, as a result of the J.P. Morgan acquisition and Putnam merger. Murphy will oversee Great-West's retirement arm, which will serve nearly seven million participants with more than $400 billion in retirement plan assets.
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Murphy, who previously was head of DC plans at Putnam, will answer directly to Great-West Financials CEO and President Robert Reynolds.
"Our organization has a unique opportunity to significantly raise the bar of retirement preparedness in our country by setting the direction toward stronger, sustainable results for working Americans and their employers," said Reynolds.
Reynolds said he will be working closely with Murphy and his team to bring a "new, outcome-oriented approach to meeting the needs of America's retirement marketplace."
While overseeing Putnam's DC business, Murphy and his team launched a low-cost platform for advisors and sponsors that allows participants to establish contribution and investment goals based on their projected monthly income needs in retirement.
"The expertise and capabilities we are bringing together within Great-West Financial is the most impressive combination of talent and focused energy that I have seen over my three decades in the financial services industry," said Murphy.
"Ultimately, it will be our clients, the marketplace and millions of working Americans who should benefit from what this extraordinary team will do," he said.
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Nick Thornton
Nick Thornton is a financial writer covering retirement and health care issues for BenefitsPRO and ALM Media. He greatly enjoys learning from the vast minds in the legal, academic, advisory and money management communities when covering the retirement space. He's also written on international marketing trends, financial institution risk management, defense and energy issues, the restaurant industry in New York City, surfing, cigars, rum, travel, and fishing. When not writing, he's pushing into some land or water.
