STEPHEN C. ROUSSIN: NEW YORK LIFE FUND CHIEF TO PLAY UP MAINSTAY BRAND

New York Life Insurance Co. has formed a management company to oversee the far-flung pieces of its Mainstay mutual fund operations.

The move is an attempt to better leverage the Mainstay brand and create a stronger infrastructure as the firm prepares to expand the 12-year-old load fund family.

Last week, the New York-based insurer named 34-year-old Stephen C. Roussin, who joined the company last year, president of a new Parsippany, N.J.-based subsidiary called Mainstay Management Inc., that will oversee sales, servicing and marketing of the funds.

In an effort to shore up sales to 401(k) and retail investors, the company has been scouting for acquisitions and is expected to add new funds and begin using non-New York Life sub-advisers for the first time. In all, it may add as many as 12 new funds this year.

The funds are sold through brokerage firms and New York Life agents, with each distribution channel accounting for about half of sales.

Assets in its existing 15 funds, says Mr. Roussin, will continue to be managed by subsidiaries MacKay-Shields Financial Corp., New York, and Monitor Capital Advisors in Princeton, N.J. MacKay-Shields, little known outside the institutional world, manages the bulk of fund assets, about $12 billion out of a total of $16 billion.

“(Mainstay Management) lends presence and scope and scale to what we are doing,” says Mr. Roussin, former chief of mutual fund marketing for Salomon Smith Barney Inc.

breadth and depth

“Ultimately it is an important first step toward becoming a household brand,” he adds.

Of course, brand building is an expensive and difficult endeavor, especially 10 years into the current fund boom when many New York Life competitors in the retail arena are already household names. Many also have upwards of 60 funds, while New York Life only has 15 retail funds and 11 institutional funds.

“We are not only looking for breadth of product. We are looking to add depth,” says Mr. Roussin.

The fund family has been
steadily building its industry market share, which is currently 0.49%, up significantly from 0.18% in 1990, according to Boston-based mutual fund consulting firm Financial Research Corp.

What’s more, a stronger brand name and more extensive product line could ratchet up sales significantly and help the company boost its meager share of the $857 billion 401(k) market. Only about $2 billion, or 13%, of its mutual fund assets come from 401(k) plans, although retirement plans overall account for about half of the total.

“The institutional business is becoming more and more 401(k) (driven),” says Phillip Maisano, chief executive officer of Evaluation Associates, a Norwalk, Conn.-based institutional consulting firm, which also manages $2.2 billion in a fund-of-funds format. “If you are going to build your institutional business, you need to have a more visible brand. So (the move) is logical.”

living large

Mainstay Management will oversee New York Life’s fledgling benefit services division in Norwood, Mass., which provides defined-benefit and defined-contribution plan consulting and design. The unit administers about 250 plans with assets of $3 billion, including $1 billion invested in Mainstay mutual funds.

“We want to be a very large player” in the 401(k) market, says Mr. Roussin. “You can’t deny the industry statistics that essentially half or more of the (mutual fund) business is coming from that area.”

new jobs

* Phoenix Duff & Phelps Corp. of Enfield, Conn., has promoted John F. Sharry, 45, to executive vice president in charge of retail sales, marketing and mutual fund customer service and transfer agents, from managing director, retail distribution. He replaces David Pepin, 53, now senior vice president, corporate division, of Phoenix Duff’s Hartford, Conn.-based parent, Phoenix Home Life Mutual Insurance Co. Mr. Sharry was also named to Phoenix Duff & Phelps’ management committee.

* Convergent Capital Management Inc. of Chicago has named Jon C. Hunt mana
ging director of affiliate relations. Mr. Hunt, 46, was senior vice president at Northern Trust Global Investments in Chicago.

* American College of Bryn Mawr, Pa., has elected Penn Mutual Life Insurance Co. president and chief operating officer Daniel J. Toran, 50, to its board of trustees. Penn Mutual’s leading general agent, Louis P. DiCerbo II, 60, was elected to the board a year ago. Each is serving a three-year term.

* Principal Financial Group of Des Moines, Iowa, has promoted Lynn A. Brones to vice president of sales for Princor Financial Services Corp.’s investment network, which serves independent financial representatives. Previously, Mr. Brones, 43, was a general manager of the Rockford, Ill., agency.

* Guardian Investor Services Corp. of New York has promoted Thomas R. Hickey Jr. and Ryan W. Johnson to senior vice president. Mr. Hickey, 45, previously was vice president, operations, and Mr. Johnson, 38, was vice president and national sales director.

* Copper Mountain Trust and Advisor Services, a Portland, Ore., independent trust company, has named Stephen F. Achilles, 36, director of human resources. He previously served as a senior management consultant in human resources and organizational change with Arthur Andersen and the Claremont Technology Group.

* Ashbridge Investment Management Inc. of Philadelphia has appointed Vladimir Belinsky, 46, to senior vice president and head of its newly established office in Los Angeles. He previously was vice president of private client services for Los Angeles-based TCW Group Inc.

* Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. of New York has appointed Gary A. Beller, 59, senior executive vice president. He was executive vice president. He continues as general counsel.

* SunAmerica Asset Management Corp. of New York has named Donna D. Calder portfolio manager to lead the small-cap investment group, replacing Audrey Snell, who resigned at the end of February. Ms. Calder, 47, was general partner in Manhattan Capital Partners, a New York private limited partne
rship focused on high-growth investing.

* State Street Research and Management Co. of Boston has named Catherine Dudley, 37, senior vice president, portfolio manager and a member of the large capitalization growth team. She comes from Chancellor Capital Management of New York, where she was senior portfolio manager.

* Sandler O’Neill & Partners LP, a New York-based investment bank, has appointed Douglas J. Elliott, 38, managing director of its new insurance investment banking group. He was an international research analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. in New York.

* First of Michigan, a Detroit-based full-service brokerage and investment banking firm, named three senior executives to join the executive suite of the company. Bruce Rockwell, formerly senior vice president and director of product marketing, was promoted to vice chairman; Chuck MacKinnon, formerly senior vice president of operations, was named the company’s chief operating officer; and Chris Kontos was promoted to senior vice president of branch administration from branch manager of First of Michigan’s Dearborn, Mich., office.

Mr. Rockwell, 58, Mr. MacKinnon, 56, and Mr. Kontos, 64, are assuming duties formerly handled by Mark Shobe, who left his post as First of Michigan’s president to become managing director of technology at the parent company, Fahnestock & Co. Inc. of Toronto.

* American Skandia Life Assurance Corp. of Shelton, Conn., has named Timothy Cronin director of portfolio marketing. He will be responsible for coordinating the technical and quantitative work for the firm’s funds. Mr. Cronin, 32, was manager of client relations for Stamford, Conn.-based Columbus Circle Investors/Columbus Circle Trust Co., where he provided investment management and trust services to various corporations and high-net-worth clients.

Send news of job changes to Wendy Hong at InvestmentNews, 220 E. 42nd St., 9th floor, New York, NY 10017-5846.