A lot of broker-dealers have invested in the retirement income space. No surprise there. But nothing comes close to Symetra Investment Services, which has boldly branded itself—and its advisors—as retirement income specialists.
Leading the charge? Industry veteran Richard Moran, who has spent the past 14 months creating a business model that takes the retirement income planning niche to a whole new level.
"We've put our flag in the ground," says Moran, 53. "We're staking out our position as a thriving midsize independent broker-dealer with a strong, binding culture amongst advisors that deliver retirement income and planning advice. Our unique focus and resources allow us to help clients grow their business by differentiating themselves in their communities as retirement income experts."
The makeover of the 26-year-old broker-dealer is being watched closely by retirement income industry leaders like François Gadenne, chairman of the Retirement Income Industry Association.
"There are three types of companies looking at the retirement income space. There's the accumulation, asset-under-management gathering model, which isn't going to change. It doesn't matter that same-old, same-old won't work. There is another group that talks the retirement talk but doesn't walk the retirement walk—and there's a whole bunch of them," observes Gadenne. "Then there is a third category that talks the retirement talk and walks the retirement walk. Symetra is in that group. At the moment, they are talking their story, building their story. It's only just started."
Moran, hired as president of the Bellevue, Wash.-based broker-dealer in December 2011, spent his first months assembling an executive team. This past June, Symetra hosted a retirement income summit for industry leaders in Seattle that served as the firm's formal introduction as a retirement income-focused broker-dealer. During the past year, Symetra has also forged strategic alliances with firms such as Pershing, Russell Investments, PIMCO and Envestnet.
"We are committed to being leaders in the retirement income thought leadership community," says Moran, who serves as senior vice president of Symetra Life Insurance Co. in addition to the top spot at the broker-dealer. The firms are subsidiaries of Symetra Financial Corp. "We've laid out our ambitions as a company to engage everybody to collectively work together and to enable advisors to learn better how to provide for retirement income needs. We know who we are, where we are going and how to get there."
In Moran, Symetra has a longtime pro whose early interest in the global economy has led to varied engagements across the financial services industry. After earning an undergraduate degree in economics at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Moran in 1981 founded a company that bought and sold small businesses in the state. He sold it in the late 1980s, then joined Merrill Lynch as an advisor—his first foray into financial services.
