Mercer Announces New Global Wealth Business President

CIO’s 2017 Consultant of the Year award winner Rich Nuzum, president, global wealth business, Mercer.

Following the recent departure announcement of Jacques Goulet, CIO’s 2017 Consultant of the Year award winner Rich Nuzum has been named president of Mercer’s global wealth business.

In addition, Mercer’s global health business will be co-led by Martine Ferland, president, Europe and Pacific, and Ken Haderer, president, North America. John Deegan, International MercerMarsh Benefits leader, will now report to Ferland, while Sharon Cunninghis, head of US Health, will continue to report to Haderer.

“Moving from strength to strength, these changes will continue to drive Mercer’s growth agenda,” Julio A. Portalatin, president and CEO of Mercer, said in a statement. “These proven leaders have the vision and insight needed to lead our business forward in times of rapid change at the global, regional, and local level. We thank Jacques for his years of leadership and congratulate Rich, Martine, and Ken on their expanded leadership roles.”

Goulet will begin a new role January 15, 2018, as president of Sun Life Financial Canada. Nuzum was previously the Wealth Leader for Mercer’s Growth Markets Region, where he led Mercer’s retirement and investments businesses across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East.

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Tags: Jacques Goulet, Mercer, Rich Nuzum

The $345.1 billion California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) investment committee has voted on changes to its portfolio during a meeting held Monday, ratifying a portfolio that is largely similar to current allocations, after a review of four candidate portfolios.

The new portfolio has a 50% allocation to equities as compared to other options under consideration, which would have significantly increased allocations to fixed income. With the new portfolio, CalPERS will still increase its allocation to fixed-income to 28% up from 20%. Real assets, which includes real estate, infrastructure and timber investments, will keep its 13% allocation, while private equity remains at 8%.

“We’ve done significant analysis to get to this point,” said Henry Jones, chair of the Investment Committee, said in a statement. “After reviewing the Capital Market Assumptions, hearing from our stakeholders, and considering the recent change made last year in the discount rate, we feel that this portfolio represents our best option for success while protecting our investments from unnecessary risk.”

The vote largely went according to plan, based on documents released ahead of the meeting, which indicated support for maintaining the status quo, but there was one dissenting vote—J.J. Jelincic, who wanted the pension to take more risk in the portfolio. Jelincic said during the meeting that CalPERS could afford the risk because of its long-term investment horizon. By taking on more risk, CalPERS could have also raised its return expectation to 7.25% up from the 7% in the chosen portfolio. That move would provide some contribution relief to constituent cities and agencies, which have already complained loudly about rising premiums. However, some on the committee worried that Jelincic’s plan could leave the portfolio overexposed to equities in a downturn.

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During the meeting, CalPERS CIO Ted Eliopoulos said he thought that the chosen portfolio offered a good balance and that the pension would be able to respond accordingly to changes in the market.

CalPERS reviews its asset allocations every four years to ensure alignment with the pension’s investment beliefs and to make sure that allocation targets are reflective of current market conditions.

Tags: Board Meeting, CalPERS, Fixed-Income, Pension