PSNC 2020: New Thoughts About QDIAs

Julie Varga is a lead solution specialist for investments and products within the retirement solutions group. She is responsible for working with a team of investment, client service, and sales professionals to develop business and client strategy in the defined contribution plan sponsor marketplace. She works as a subject matter expert by providing direction to clients regarding all workplace solutions.
In her previous role as Vice President of Product Management, Varga managed the custom target date solutions and the Morningstar Lifetime Index Funds, a series of collective investment trusts based on the Morningstar target date indexes. She worked closely with business leaders, investment professionals, sales, and marketing to address the needs of the industry and clients in supporting the funds.
Prior to that, Varga was Director of Client Solutions, responsible for managing strategic client relationships within the retirement solutions group of the Morningstar Investment Management group. She focused on broadening key relationships, developing customized solutions for clients and strategic planning based on the needs of the marketplace.
Varga holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematical economics from the University of Michigan.

Phil leads TIAA’s Guaranteed Income Solutions team. He and his team are responsible for designing, manufacturing, and managing spread-based and fee-based guaranteed annuity, funding agreement, and other lifetime income and stable value products across multiple product types, distribution channels, and end user clients. He has 27 years of experience with general account and separate account products that preserve principal and provide stable returns, both with and without lifetime income options. He joined TIAA in 2007 and has developed and/or managed a range of products, including TIAA’s off-platform guaranteed solutions for plan defaults, TIAA’s flagship TIAA Traditional Annuity, TIAA Stable Value, and Separate Account GIC product lines.

Previously he held a variety of managerial and individual contributor roles with Prudential Financial supporting guaranteed income and stable value products issued to defined contribution, defined benefit and college savings plans.

Phil holds a B.S. in finance from the Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) and an M.B.A in finance from the Rutgers Graduate School of Management. He is a member of the Stable Value Investment Association (SVIA), has published industry collateral in partnership with both the SVIA and industry peers, and has represented TIAA on industry working groups to help shape regulations and policy.

Hugh Penney is Senior Advisor for Benefits Planning and responsible for long-term strategy and leadership of the critical areas of retirement, heath care, and university benefits. He serves as a member of the Retirement Account Plans Fiduciary Committee on Investments, Labor-Management Planning Team, Board of University Health, and HIPAA Privacy & Security Advisory Committees. His previous position was Senior Director of Compensation & Benefits. Yale University is an American private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Founded in 1701, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nine Colonial Colleges chartered before the American Revolution.Yale’s 403(b) Plans have over 15,000 active participants and 12,000 retirees and former employees with assets exceeding $6.5 billion. Yale’s 403(b) Plans have a hybrid Custom Target Date with a guaranteed accumulation annuity as its primary fixed income investment that includes lifetime income options. Yale’s Target Date Plus service is the QDIA and combines many of the very best features of Target Date investing, Managed Accounts, and guaranteed Lifetime Income.