Ed Murphy, president of Empower Retirement, has been appointed CEO of Great-West Life and Annuity Insurance Company, the parent company of Empower.
Murphy will replace Robert Reynolds, who will serve as chairman of Great-West Lifeco U.S., the holding company of GWL&A. Reynolds will also continue to serve as CEO of Putnam Investments, also a subsidiary of Great-West Lifeco.
The announcement comes weeks after GWL&A sold off most of its life insurance and annuity business in an effort to focus on its retirement plan and investment management businesses.
In his new role, Murphy will continue as president of Empower Retirement, as well as oversee Great-West Investments. Empower was formed in 2014 and administers about 39,000 workplace retirement plans.
Great-West Lifeco U.S. is owned by Great-West Lifeco, based in Winnipeg, Canada.
Empower and Putman Investment drove growth for the U.S. arm of Lifeco in 2018. Empower reported a 6 percent increase in participant accounts, from 8.3 million to 8.8 million. In 2017, Empower's participant base grew at twice the industry average for retirement plan record keepers.
Sales of Putnam Investments mutual funds and institutional assets increased 53 percent in 2018.
Prior to his appointment as president of Empower in 2014, Murphy was the managing director of Putnam's DCIO business.
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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.
