Barbara Delaney is leaving HUB International to devote her time working on issues in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 (CAA), the retirement industry veteran announced on Saturday.
Delaney confirmed the news over the weekend to the National Association of Plan Advisors (NAPA), an affiliate of the American Retirement Association, adding that her relationship with HUB remains amicable following her departure. Delaney will continue to service her retirement plan clients from HUB.
Her upcoming role will be in a “new nonprofit,” where she is set to focus on healthcare plan fiduciary cases. Delaney will work alongside doctors, lawyers, health care professionals, and fiduciary specialists in her new role.
Delaney credits her special needs grandson for inspiring her in this new line of work, where she hopes to highlight the discrepancies between out-of-pocket costs for drugs and services compared to expenses with insurance.
The CAA, an extension of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), was established to combat surprise billing and transparency with healthcare services, drugs, and procedures. Under the law, healthcare plan fiduciaries are required to operate under the same standards of care as retirement plan fiduciaries.
While Delaney says she is “never leaving the retirement plan business,” she tells 401(k) Specialist that she’s ready to transition her services outside of finance, especially as more employers become health plan fiduciaries.
“The days of negotiating a half basis point from our asset managers, recordkeeper partners ,and our own compensation needs to be refocused on our one true need, our health,” she said. “It’s our plan sponsor [clients’] second largest spend. We need transparency. We need our industry’s powers unleashed on this system.
“Health care is de-funding our retirement plan system,” she added.
Delaney joined HUB in 2019 following the firm’s acquisition of her retirement and investment fiduciary advisory group StoneStreet Pearl River.
“We felt that Hub was the right choice to help us continue to grow,” Delaney said at the time to 401(k) Specialist. “We chose Hub because they are focused on where plan sponsors are going from a total employee benefits approach. The convergence of health and wealth is here, and Hub is in the best position to fulfill this vision for our plan sponsors.”
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Hub International Buys Delaney’s StoneStreet 401k Firm
Amanda Umpierrez is the Managing Editor of 401(k) Specialist magazine. She is a financial services reporter with nearly a decade of experience and a passion for telling stories and reporting news. She is originally from Queens, New York, but now resides in Denver, Colorado.
