Retirement planning

A senior Prudential executive is calling upon the government to promote the development of multiple employer plans, which allows many small employer to pool their resources together under a single defined contribution plan.

San Francisco, Calif,-based Callan Associates, an investment consultant, has hired Benjamin Taylor as vice president, responsible for investment structure reviews, fee analyses and record keeping searches.

In addition to the emotional issues surrounding clients’ financial decision-making, most advisors’ skill sets are not aligned with the task ahead.

Matrix Financial Solutions has expanded the functionality of TrueOpen, its core mutual fund trading platform, to address growing demands from retirement plan providers and advisors.

J.P. Morgan Asset Management has hired Richard Gray as managing director and institutional client advisor, based in New York and focused primarily on corporate defined benefit plans and public fund retirement plan clients. This is a new position reporting to Andrea Lisher, East Team Lead for Institutional Advisory Sales at J.P. Morgan Asset Management.

The odds of being single at some point during retirement are high and present unique challenges for both “ever single” retirees who never married and for those who become “suddenly single” in retirement due to divorce or death of a spouse. In fact, 43 percent of Americans age 65 and older are single due to divorce, having never married, or the death of a partner.

AXA Equitable has hired Amy Radin to the new position of senior executive vice president and chief marketing officer.

Jackson National Life Insurance Company, a purveyor of variable annuities, is looking to offer its advisors and their retail clients access to alternative investments.

Mutual of Omaha has named Seth Friedman to serve as 401(k) national sales director. He takes over for Michael Ziccardi, who left the firm in December to join Rekon Intelligence, which works with advisors to help them build out their businesses.

Many investors put off making final IRA contributions until the last minute, and now Fidelity Investments has an app for that.

Insurers will need to rethink product offerings as policymakers are now looking beyond the once-vaunted 401(k).

StanCorp Equities has appointed Jennifer Giampaolo as a pension consultant for its Orange County Retirement Plans Office, responsible for retirement plan sales in Orange, San Diego, San Bernardino and Riverside counties. She will also serve Arizona and New Mexico.

Another financial services firm has entered the fray over providing customer’s high functioning mobile access.

Many small business owners are unprepared for retirement, with a third of the women and a quarter of the men in a new survey having no estimate of how much they will need when they retire.

Helping clients identify and separate sources of income to face the challenges of getting older.

J.P. Morgan Asset Management said that it has completed its reorganization of its Retirement Plan Services to fully align its sales force with retirement plan advisors.

Previously, JP Morgan retirement sales reps were assigned to either mid- or large-market segments.

Mutual of Omaha has named Seth Friedman to serve as 401(k) national sales director. He takes over for Michael Ziccardi, who left the firm in December to join Rekon Intrelligence, which works with advisors to help them build out their businesses.

New study finds that majority of middle-income Americans admit to knowing little about the Medicare program.

There’s a new authority watching over faculty and staff on campus at Wellesley College.