To address both the opportunities and challenges of an expanding retirement industry landscape, today Nuveen announced it is launching what it calls Nuveen Retirement Investing.
“This new client-business channel is organized to bring more of Nuveen’s world-class investment offerings to higher-education and other not-for-profit plan sponsor and corporate clients while also delivering TIAA’s leading retirement income capabilities to the defined contribution market,” said Nuveen’s Mike Perry, Head of Global Client Group, in an internal memo sent to employees today shared by the firm with 401k Specialist.
The new channel is led by Brendan McCarthy, who now reports to Perry and joins the Global Client Group leadership team. “He will leverage our existing Defined Contribution Investment Only (DCIO) distribution team and our broader relationships with investment consultants—in close partnership with the Nuveen Global Consultant Relations team led by Kate Jonas—to retain and expand the offering of Nuveen funds available on higher-education retirement plan menus and bring our retirement income products to third parties,” Perry said.
To support their TIAA colleagues as they pursue opportunities to deliver guaranteed lifetime income through sales and service of TIAA Traditional and RetirePlus, Perry said McCarthy and his team specifically will focus on providing investment and product expertise to retain and grow the sizable allocation of Nuveen funds on plan menus.
They will also coordinate the deployment of Nuveen’s investment, Learning and Development and Marketing capabilities to best support all client-facing teams. Perry said “they will continue the important work of introducing guaranteed lifetime income solutions to the defined contribution market through positioning of the recently launched Secure Income Account,” which was introduced in January.
“Nuveen Retirement Investing enhances our abilities and structure to address the growing urgency of securing retirements when more than 40% of U.S. households are projected to run out of money, including educators and others in service professions whom we all depend on,” Perry said. “Equally important, it enables us to deliver our entire enterprise to our clients.”
Nuveen also has plans to double the size of the Nuveen Retirement Investing business with additional hires across distribution, sales and marketing.
SEE ALSO:
• Retirement Income’s Rapidly Increasing Reach: NAPA 401(k) Summit
• TIAA Launches Lifetime Income Product