FEG President, CEO Becky Wood to Retire at End of 2023

Fund Evaluation Group LLC, also known as FEG Investment Advisors, an employee-owned investment advisory with $71 billion assets under advisement, announced that Becky Wood, its president and CEO, will retire at the end of 2023 after five years at the helm of the organization and more than three decades of service to the firm.

Current CIO Alan Lenahan will take over as CEO, while Bill Goslee, the current head of institutional services, will take over as president, both in 2024. Additionally, Nolan Bean was promoted from head of institutional investments to co-CIO, effective immediately, joining Greg Dowling.

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Upon her retirement from Cincinnati-based FEG, Wood will continue her affiliation with the organization by being elevated to chairwoman of the firm’s board.

Her replacement, Alan Lenahan, who previously served as CIO of the firm for the past seven years, will assume the role of CEO at the turn of the new year. In addition to this promotion, FEG elevated Bill Goslee, former the head of institutional services for the past 15 years to president, effective, January 1, 2024. While promoting Nolan Bean from managing principal, head of institutional investments, to co-CIO effective immediately, alongside current Co-CIO Greg Dowling.

Lenahan has been at FEG for 21 years, the last seven as CIO, and holds both a CFA charter and a CAIA charter, with previous stints at Western & Southern Life and Arthur Andersen.

Goslee has been with FEG for 15 years and brings 38 years of financial services experience to the president role, with tenures at Arthur Andersen, Goldman Sachs Asset Management and Nationwide Financial.

“Alan and Bill have been instrumental in the development and execution of FEG’s investment and business strategy for more than a decade,” Wood said in a statement. “We are confident that through their focus on investment performance and client engagement, FEG will deliver an exceptional investment experience to our deserving clients. As tenured members of the FEG Leadership Team, Alan and Bill have highly complementary skill sets and a long history of close collaboration. They also have a deep understanding of the distinct needs of our institutional clients, their long-term investment objectives, and unique missions. I look forward to working closely with Alan, Bill and our entire Leadership Team throughout this transition, and I am pleased to have the opportunity to continue to uphold FEG’s mission, vision and values as a member of the Board moving forward.”

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Tags: Alan Lenahan, Becky Wood, Bill Goslee, FEG Investment Advisors, Greg Dowling, Nolan Bean

New legislation, the Freedom to Invest in a Sustainable Future Act, was introduced Thursday by Representative Suzan DelBene, D-Washington, would codify the key elements of the controversial Department of Labor rule permitting environmental, social and governance considerations in retirement plan investing, which went into effect on January 30. The legislation is co-sponsored the co-founders of the Sustainable Investment Caucus, Representatives Sean Casten, D-Illinois, and Juan Vargas, D-California.

The bill would amend the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 to permit the consideration of ESG factors in retirement plan investing. It would also amend ERISA to include the updated “tiebreaker” rule: If a sponsor is deciding between multiple investment options, they could use “collateral” ESG factors if competing options would otherwise serve equally “the plan’s economic interests.”

This tiebreaker phraseology of “serve equally” is understood as a lower legal barrier than the phrasing of Trump-era the DOL rule from 2020, under the administration of President Donald Trump, which said that in order to consider collateral factors as a tiebreaker, competing investments must be otherwise indistinguishable.

Again in keeping with the new rule, and in contrast to the Trump-era rule, the bill explicitly does not require additional documentation. The bill reads: “A fiduciary shall not be required to maintain any greater documentation, substantiation, or other justification of the fiduciary’s actions relating to such fiduciary act than is otherwise required.”

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This point on documenting requirements was a key element of a lawsuit brought in Wisconsin on Tuesday which challenges the legality of the DOL’s ESG rule. That lawsuit alleges that by not requiring documentation of collateral considerations, fiduciaries can avoid leaving a paper trail which could then be used against them later in litigation.

Since the two open complaints—including one brought in North Texas by 25 states—against the DOL rule challenge its consistency with ERISA, the proposed bill would obviate that objection by amending ERISA to effectively incorporate the DOL rule.

The representatives who back the bill have put forward two reasons to support it: ESG is a sound financial methodology, and ESG principles can make investing more environmentally and socially responsible.

DelBene emphasized both components in a statement, saying that, “Americans deserve a secure retirement and ESG investments can be a key component in accomplishing that goal. This bill would help provide workers and retirees a pathway to reach that secure retirement and invest in a sustainable world for future generations.”

In the same statement, Casten emphasized the intersection of financial returns and ESG and said, “Climate risk is financial risk. Retirement plan fiduciaries should be free to consider climate change and other ESG factors without regulatory barriers or the threat of litigation. I’m proud to support this legislation that gives workers the option to invest in the best plans for their future.”

Democrat supporters of ESG in Congress often take what might be called the “happy coincidence” thesis, which says that considering ESG factors is good for investing and risk management, as required by ERISA, and that it also makes the investment sector more environmentally and socially conscious.

The bill would have to pass the Republican-controlled House of Representatives before being taken up by the Democrat-majority Senate. The bill has not been assigned to a Congressional committee yet, but it is likely to be referred to the House Financial Services Committee.

Tags: anti-ESG, ESG, United States Department of Labor (DOL)