Gerald B. Smith has been elected to New York Life Insurance Company's board of directors, effective November 1, 2012.
Smith is chairman and CEO of Smith, Graham & Company Investment Advisors, a global investment management firm that manages more than $5 billion in fixed income and equity portfolio strategies, which he co-founded in 1990. Prior to forming his own firm, he served as senior vice president and director of fixed income securities for Underwood Neuhaus & Co., a regional brokerage firm in Houston. Previously at Westcap Corporation he was responsible for national sales and trading with institutional investors. Initially, he worked with Dillon Read and Co., in the fixed income sector, trading and advising in portfolio management.
In 2011, Smith was appointed to the Board of The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas – Houston Branch to provide input on regional economic conditions as part of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy functions. He is a Trustee of the Charles Schwab Family of Funds and also serves on the boards of ONEOK, Inc., ONEOK Partners GP, LLC and Cooper Industries PLC. Additionally he serves as chair of the Texas Southern University Foundation, board and executive committee member of the National Association of Securities Professionals board of directors, as well as board member of the Greater Houston Partnership where he serves as chairman of the Transportation Policy Committee.
Smith holds a BBA degree from Texas Southern University.
In other industry news:
Sun Life Financial is trying to helping the employers that use its stop-loss insurance programs – insurance plans for self-insured health plans – cope with the new Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) plan document requirements.
Sun Life has picked The Phia Group to review plan documents, such as benefits summaries, for employers, employers' brokers and employers' benefit plan administrators.
Phia consultants will look to see whether a plan documents comply with federal law, Sun Life says.
The consultants also will analyze plan cost containment features and provisions that describe what kind of discretion the employer and plan administrator have to interpret the terms of the plan.
ING U.S. is focusing on individual products designed for sale at the worksite.
The company has rolled out new "voluntary," employee-paid accident insurance and critical illness insurance products.
The company is emphasizing in marketing materials that the products will pay the policyholders fixed indemnity benefits, regardless of whether the illnesses or accidents are also covered by the policyholders' group health benefits.
ING U.S. is telling employers that employers will find administering the new products to be more like managing traditional group benefits than like managing traditional voluntary benefits programs.
