SageView Advisory Group has hired Kerry Woods as Vice President of Participant Education and Engagement to lead the firm’s new financial education platform for participants of its retirement plan sponsor clients.
According to the announcement, PersonalSAGE—Strategic Advice, Guidance and Empowerment—is a financial readiness platform aimed at providing education and access to financial planning services for all retirement plan participants.
“We are focused on meeting the evolving needs of retirement plan participants and helping them improve their financial outcomes with confidence,” said Jon Upham, SageView's President and Head of Institutional Retirement. “This comprehensive financial education and engagement platform provides in-person and technology-driven financial planning solutions aimed at transforming financial habits, perceptions, and readiness so participants can tackle financial challenges when they arise.”
Financial Readiness for All
In noting that mass affluent retirement plan participants are the least likely to work with a financial advisor because of minimum threshold requirements, PersonalSAGE can help fill the gap by providing each participant a personalized assessment of their financial standing and access to experienced financial coaches both in person and virtually for one-on-one consultations, the announcement explains.
Participants will have access to the team of PersonalSAGE financial coaches through multiple avenues, including a dedicated participant website, virtual and in-person education sessions, and via an online technology platform built in collaboration with SageView's technology partner, LifeCents.
In hiring Woods to lead PersonalSAGE, SageView notes that she is an experienced strategic development consultant who has worked over the last decade at both Voya Financial and Empower Retirement, with her most recent role as Vice President, Consultant Relations Director at Voya Financial. She is the latest leader to join SageView since the company announced a strategic and financial partnership with private-equity firm Aquiline Capital Partners in January 2021.
“I've seen firsthand how a lack of financial education can impact generations of families, so this initiative is extremely important to me,” Woods notes. “The ability to sit down one-on-one with a financial professional, share your financial goals and struggles and receive actionable, personalized advice is crucial to improving participants' financial outcomes.”
SageView currently has over $150 billion in retirement plan assets, and the firm's wealth management business has grown to approximately $4 billion via organic expansion and targeted acquisitions, according to the announcement.
