The Bucket

Brief or late-breaking items from Nationwide, Transamerica Retirement Services and MassMutual Retirement Services.

Nationwide names new leaders for retirement plans and P&C Direct  

The leaders of Nationwide’s retirement plans business and its property & casualty direct channel will be switching roles, the company announced this week. Larry Hilsheimer will lead Nationwide Retirement Plans and Anne Arvia will lead Nationwide Direct, Affinity and Growth Solutions. The changes are effective immediately.

Larry Hilsheimer has been named President and Chief Operating Officer of Nationwide Retirement Plans. He will retain oversight of Nationwide Bank. He joined Nationwide as executive vice president and chief financial officer in 2007 coming from Deloitte & Touche USA, LLP where he served as partner, vice chairman and regional managing partner.

Anne Arvia has been named President and Chief Operating Officer of Nationwide Direct, Affinity and Growth Solutions (NDAGS). Arvia currently serves as the leader for Nationwide Retirement Plans. NDAGS includes Nationwide’s direct property & casualty sales channel, specialty insurance, affinity partnerships, and Veterinary Pet Insurance. Arvia joined Nationwide in 2006 as president of Nationwide Bank prior to assuming her role as leader of Retirement Plans in 2009. Previously, Arvia spent 15 years at ShoreBank in Chicago.

Additionally, Mark Berven has been named Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy and Product Management Officer. He will oversee strategy for the Nationwide enterprise and the product organization for property & casualty business lines. He joined Nationwide in 1994 and has served as a regional vice president and most recently as senior vice president of product and pricing for all P&C operations.

Hilsheimer will report to Kirt Walker, President and Chief Operating Officer of Nationwide Financial Services. Arvia will report to Mark Pizzi, President and Chief Operating Officer of Nationwide Insurance. Berven will report to CEO Steve Rasmussen.

Stout joins MassMutual Retirement Services as southeast sales director

Christopher Stout joined MassMutual’s Retirement Services Division on August 1 as sales director to support the Southeast region. He reports to Shefali Desai, emerging market sales manager for MassMutual’s Retirement Services Division.

Based in Canton, Ga., Stout is responsible for business development and sales support of MassMutual’s third-party and dedicated distribution channels focusing on retirement plans in the small-plan market. He will partner with MassMutual’s managing director, Jeffrey Keller, covering Ga. and Ala.

Previously, Stout was regional vice president of retirement plan sales with Guardian Insurance Company of America. He holds a BA from Stockton State College.

Transamerica Retirement Services website gets top DALBAR rating

Transamerica Retirement Services’ plan participant and plan sponsor websites have been rated “Excellent” in DALBAR’s first quarter Defined Contribution WebMonitor program. Transamerica outperformed more than 40 other retirement plan provider websites rated in the study, according to a company release.

Transamerica’s plan participant website earned a score of 93.35 out of a possible 100, an increase of 3.33 points since 4Q 2011, surpassing its own record WebMonitor score achieved by a plan participant website in the study’s history. This is the second consecutive calendar quarter that Transamerica’s plan participant website has set a record score for the DALBAR report.

Transamerica’s plan sponsor website also earned an “Excellent” designation – the only site to do so among 42 peers – and ranked in top position in DALBAR’s analysis of provider websites for retirement plan sponsors. Transamerica’s plan sponsor website has won this recognition for 10 consecutive calendar quarters.

Transamerica’s plan sponsor and plan participant websites have also been awarded DALBAR’s Seal of Excellence for eight consecutive years.

Each quarter, DALBAR identifies industry websites that attain a top-10 ranking based on scoring in five categories: functionality, usability, behavior centric attributes, content currency and consistency.