Benefits and retirement industry newsmakers: AALU-GAMA, Empower, Howard University, Mercer Global Advisors, RxBenefits
The CFP Board, Expand Financial, Financial Fitness for Life, The Financial Solutions Lab, PSCA, TIAA, The Wagner Law Group, Wonder Woman Mastermind Series
As summer 2020 rolls along, we’ve collected a variety of recent announcements from companies in the employee benefits and retirement industry. Here are a few:
Wonder Woman Mastermind Series will launch July 20. There will be set topics each month via Zoom and breakout round tables after the topic is introduced to share. Topics will include What’s the Most Significant Change You’ve Made to Improve Your Business? Leveraging Virtual Tools; Overcoming Self Defeating Habits; Keeping Your Seat at the Table, and more. Additionally, the series will share the “Wonder Woman Wow” for the month to celebrate the accomplishments of members. The Wonder Woman Mastermind will be led by Taskforce Members Cerrina Jensen – CoreMark Insurance Services Inc.; Chelsea Whalley – J Donovan Financial; Jessica Waltman – Forward Health Consulting; Nancy Giacolone – Olympic Crest Insurance Inc.; Suzy Alberts – Comprehensive Benefits Inc and Susan L Combs, Combs & Company LLC.
The Wagner Law Group announced that attorney Jordan D. Mamorsky has been elevated to of Counsel. Since joining The Wagner Law Group in March 2019, he has participated in the litigation of a wide array of complex ERISA litigation and employee benefit issues. He regularly represents plan sponsors, plan fiduciaries, financial advisors, plan participants and others in a broad range of ERISA disputes, including breach of fiduciary duty, denial of benefits, Employee Stock Ownership Plan and deferred compensation matters.
RxBenefits has named Kelly Chillingworth, RPh, MHA-Ed, CGP, director of business development for the company’s northeast region. Chillingworth will lead RxBenefits’ northeast sales team in business development planning and activities. Chillingworth has over 26 years of experience as a pharmacist and has held various positions in the benefits industry, including director level titles at a health plan and specialized renal pharmacy.
Mercer Global Advisors announced the acquisition of Argosy Wealth Management. Argosy serves approximately 300 households with assets under management of approximately $330MM. Michael Karon and Alex Kimura cofounded Argosy in 2010 and will be joining Mercer Advisors along with their seven staff members.
The Howard University Savings Plan, under the management of TIAA, has been awarded the 2020 Signature Award from The Plan Sponsor Council of America (PSCA), part of the American Retirement Association (ARA). Howard University with TIAA received first place in the “Plan Changes – Large Company Category.” A panel of 25 business leaders evaluated and selected the winners of the 2020 Signature Awards from 120 entries in eleven categories.
The Financial Solutions Lab, an initiative launched and managed by the Financial Health Network and JPMorgan Chase, announced an additional commitment by Prudential Financial, expanding the Financial Solutions Lab to $60M over a 10-year period. It also announced the four organizations for its sixth Accelerator cohort to help develop solutions to advance the financial health of underserved workers and students: Climb Credit; Edquity; Finli; and Summer. Each team will receive $125,000 in capital, access to Financial Health Network and partnership opportunities, one-on-one ongoing mentorship and expertise provided by the Financial Health Network and JPMorgan Chase executives and more.
Financial Fitness for Life announced the promotion of Christian Mango to President of its national retirement plan solutions business. He formerly held the title of Executive Vice President. Mango has 21 years of investment industry experience. He was previously a defined contribution consultant at BlackRock, and has held senior sales roles at Pioneer Investments, Touchstone Investments, Natixis Global Associates and Citigroup Global Asset Management.
Expand Financial announced the closing of its acquisition of Dream Forward’s 401(k) business; eFA, a Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) affiliated with Expand Financial, is currently the 3(38) fiduciary on most Dream Forward plans being acquired. With the completion of the 401(k) sale, Dream Forward will continue to operate its growing technology licensing business, white-labeling its proprietary retirement chatbot technology to the industry.
Empower Retirement and Personal Capital announced that Empower will acquire Personal Capital for up to $1 billion in enterprise value, composed of $825 million on closing and up to $175 million for planned growth. After the close of the transaction, Personal Capital will be branded as “Personal Capital, an Empower Company” and will continue to provide its financial tools and investment solutions to its clients. Personal Capital CEO Jay Shah will serve as President of Personal Capital, reporting to Empower CEO Edmund F. Murphy III, and will be a member of its executive team. A joint team from both enterprises will work together to integrate the Personal Capital and Empower offerings.
Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards announced efforts to strengthen the enforcement of its Code of Ethics and Standards of Conduct for CFP professionals, which will begin on June 30, 2020. Among the actions are facilitating consumer access to BrokerCheck and IAPD information from listings of CFP professionals on its websites, letsmakeaplan.org and CFP.net; requiring CFP professionals to make ongoing disclosures of an expanded category of information within 30 days; and conducting updated background checks on all 87,000+ CFP professionals to detect, investigate and adjudicate matters that may indicate misconduct by CFP professionals, in accordance with CFP Board’s Procedural Rules.
AALU/GAMA announced that Armstrong Robinson, former vice president of legislative affairs, was promoted to senior vice president of government affairs. Robinson will oversee the public policy agenda, government affairs, and business strategy for the organization. Prior to joining AALU, Armstrong advocated for clients at the Prime Policy Group, a premier D.C.-based bipartisan lobbying firm on a wide variety of issues ranging from tax to technology. During his decade of service in the U.S. Congress, Armstrong served as chief of staff and counsel to Congressmen Keith Rothfus (R-PA), and Geoff Davis (R-KY).
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