Trisha Brambley

President

Trisha@ResourcesForRetirement.com

“People and service are the cornerstone of our corporate identity.”

“Our team members are enthusiastic, engaged and skilled in anticipating the needs of our clients. Together we thoughtfully develop solutions for retirement plan sponsors that address their desired outcomes for competitive high quality retirement programs.”

As President of RESOURCES, Trisha leads the firm with an innovative spirit and client dedication which has been its hallmark since its inception over a decade ago. “Our values, individually and collectively, are to offer a wide array of solutions to perfectly fit each client’s needs and to do so in a straight-forward, ethical manner. Our service-centered culture translates to long term clients and an ever-growing list of new ones.”

As part of the team that developed the country’s first 401(k) plans, and as forerunner in the development of the plan advisory serves model, Trisha has been named one of the most influential in the retirement plan industry (401kWire) and recognized as one of the most successful advisors in the country (Plan Sponsor Magazine).

Trisha carries this same dedication and philosophy to her vice-chair appointment for the DOL’s ERISA Advisory Council. ‘It’s an honor to serve on the council. I hope I can use this opportunity to contribute to the pool of knowledge that makes our retirement plan system a vital component to the financial security of employees.”

Noted Expert
Trisha is frequently quoted in the press including Money Magazine, Readers Digest, Pension & Investment Age, The Philadelphia Inquirer, CFO and hundreds more. In addition, she is a speaker on many national forums that focus on retirement plan issues, including the Profit Sharing Council of America, the Center for Due Diligence and the Department of Labor.

Innovator
“As one of the premier plan advisory firms in the country, we bring independent, expansive and practical insight to plan sponsors.” In 1995, Trisha launched RESOURCES for Retirement dedicated to helping plan sponsors select the best plan provider, obtain competitive plan pricing, consider defined benefit alternatives, and adopt the best practices in running their plan. On going plan monitoring, constructing plan effectiveness reviews and combining this with deep plan consulting expertise is what makes our services stand out.

National Plans Consultant
As Vice President, Retirement Plan Services for Johnson Companies, and then Noble Lowndes, who acquired them, Trisha’s role included senior management, national leadership, and serving as lead consultant for the firm’s largest and most prestigious clients.

401(k) Pioneer
As part of the team that developed the country’s first 401(k) plans, Trisha was involved in all aspects of bringing these plans to life. Her role included the successful creation of the first 401(k) education programs, putting together plans that fit with the clients’ culture that adopted them, and working through the early days’ trials, tribulations and excitement in uncharted waters.

Trisha has her series 6, 63, 65 registrations and is a Registered Investment Advisor, Health Insurance, and Property and Casualty Representative. She is also a member of the Profit Council of America’s Editing committee and Signature Award Judge and is a National Retirement Plan’s advisory board member.

Award-Winning Service
— Dec 2006, Trisha Brambley named among “401kWire’s 2007 Fifty Most Influential” in the 401(k) Industry
— Dec 2005, Bright Spots, Top 25 Advisors*
— Nov 2004, Most Successful Plan Advisors*
— Oct 2004, “Best In Class” Awards*
    - Only 11 firms received awards
    - Among the highest rated client satisfaction score
    - Quality of research, advice, reports and depth of resources

*Plan Sponsor Magazine

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Carmela L. Elco

Vice President of Client Services
& Accredited Investment Fiduciary®
CElco@ResourcesForRetirement.com

“We work to help eliminate the stress of decision making for our clients. That’s a big part of why our Advisory Services Program is structured the way it is. So you can be confident that we are going to provide you with a reassuring experience and a clear decision making process.”

RESOURCES for Retirement’s reputation for excellence is due, in part, to the efforts of Carmela Elco. Carmela has been with the firm since, 1999, and as Vice President of Client Services our clients look to her for sound advice.

Her client service mentality, along with her professionalism and superior technical expertise, fuels our mission “to create the best possible retirement plan solutions for our clients.” She brings years of leadership, knowledge, and effective strategy to complex fiduciary matters. “It’s about more than managing investments; it is about making a difference in the lives of our clients and their most valuable assets—their people.”

With an enduring attention to detail, she enjoys working with finance and human resources professionals to help them comply with ever-changing rules and regulations, work through complex and sensitive retirement plan mergers, build thoughtful and responsible defined benefit replacement plans, monitor investments and help them understand the challenges and available opportunities to build an effective and competitive program.

Ms. Elco has extensive training as a Human Resources professional. She is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh and holds an MA in Human Resources Management from St. Francis University where she was awarded an Academic Excellence Award for her exemplary scholarly achievements. Ms. Elco is certified as a Professional in Human Resources and is an active member of numerous local HR Organizations. She has her Series 6, 63, 7 and 24 licenses and has obtained her Accredited Investment Fiduciary? designation from the Foundation of Fiduciary Studies.

Prior to joining RESOURCES, Carmela served as a Retirement Benefits Manager for an internationally recognized shipbuilding company where she was responsible for the retirement benefits of 7,000 active and 5,000 retired employees. She has hands on experience with multiple plan consolidations, employee communication and administration from a plan sponsor perspective.

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Dana Brigandi

AVP, Business Development

Dana@ResourcesForRetirement

“Everyday is an opportunity to discover something new or to see the world with a fresh perspective. I try to bring this philosophy into the work I do for our clients.”

Optimistic, energetic and creative- three words commonly used to describe Dana by her colleagues. Whether it’s helping our clients stay up-to-date with critical information, trends and alerts or preparing a topical and engaging presentation she brings clarity to complicated matters. Dana leads the firm’s well-respected and award winning financial education program and is a creative planner of educational events for plan participants, investment committee members, plan fiduciaries and CPA's.

Additionally, Dana periodically conducts surveys on topics requested by our clients, manages our press and media mentions, develops sales and marketing strategy, shapes our telemarketing program and organizes our research, white papers and statistics on a variety of topics. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, has her Series 6 registration and is a Series 63 candidate.

Prior to joining RESOURCES, Dana worked as a Project Manager at The Hibbert Group where she worked for some of the firm’s largest and most prestigious clients, including Merck and Eli Lilly. While on the Eli Lilly team, they were awarded Vendor of the Year an unprecedented 2-years running.

Ted Benna

Mr. Benna acts as a specialist consultant to Resources for Retirement on retirement plan projects, providing insight and experience for plan sponsors.

Mr. Benna, the President and Founder of the 401(k) Association, is commonly referred to as the “father of 401(k)” because he created and gained IRS approval for the first 401(k) savings plan. A nationally recognized expert on retirement issues, Mr. Benna's articles and comments have appeared in myriad publications. He has received many citations for his accomplishments including:

• 2001 National Jefferson Award recipient for Greatest Public Service by a Private Citizen
• 2001 Player of the Year selected by Defined Contribution News
• One of eight individuals selected by Money Magazine for its special 20 th Anniversary Issue Hall of Fame
• Selected by Business Insurance as one of the four People of the Century

Mr. Benna has also been profiled in the New York Times, Institutional Investors, Pension & Investments, USA Today, Employee Benefit News, Human Resource Executive, Fortune, Plan Sponsor, Kiplinger and many other publications.

Mr. Benna has authored four books, Helping Employees Achieve Retirement Income Security published by Investors Press,Escaping the Coming Retirement Crisis published by Pinon Press,Tips for Successfully Managing Your 401(k) published by 401(k) Association and 401(k) for Dummies published by Hungry Minds.

Ted has helped thousands of employers of all sizes establish, restructure, and administer their retirement programs during his 40 plus year career.

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John Fletcher, CPC, QPA, QKA

Vice President, Special Consulting Services

John@ResourcesForRetirement.com

Who was the first 401(k) participant in the country? Our very own -- John Fletcher!

As part of the team that developed the country’s first 401(k) plans, John was instrumental in designing the plan provisions of this revolutionary program; many of which are still in existence today.

John has more than thirty years of experience in all aspects of retirement plan consulting and has gained the ultimate trust and respect of our clients. As man of exceptionally high personal standards, John has helped our clients resolve and prevent challenging non-compliance issues. In addition, John offers our clients years of experience with plan audits, conducts contract reviews and evaluates complicated and often difficult to understand stable value contracts. John also specializes in defined benefit plan consulting, cost benefit analysis and provides defined benefit replacement plan alternatives.

Before becoming Vice President of Special Consulting Services at RESOURCES, John owned and managed his own TPA firm, where he served as President and CEO until it sold to Century Business (CBIZ). Prior to that, John was with The Johnson Companies, as their Senior Technical Consultant and worked on many special projects; most notably developing an Employee Stock Ownership Plan “modeling” program that would assess whether it was feasible for a company to establish an ESOP.

John is a graduate of George Washington University, a member of the American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries (ASPPA) where he holds several of their professional credentials and served on the Exam Committee of the American College.

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Cindy DeGulis

Client Services Coordinator

Cindy@ResourcesForRetirement.com

As the very first RESOURCES’ employee, Cindy has a faithful dedication and commitment to our firm and our clients.

Throughout her career, Cindy has gained extensive technical and hands-on experience to provide the high level service our clients deserve. In her role as Client Services Coordinator, Cindy leverages this experience to successfully carry out a broad variety of projects designed to improve the retirement readiness of our clients and their employees.

“Collaboration within our organization is vital to meeting the needs of our clients.” Whether it’s working with clients and staff to gather and assemble critical client information, outlining the objectives and scope of the assignment or drafting complex RFPs, Cindy brings this philosophy to her work and is a highly valued member of our team. In addition, Cindy creates web-based questionnaires for compiling vendor responses and assists in preparation of key client deliverables.

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Richard A. Lord

Chief Financial Officer

As Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Lord is responsible for the oversight of financial, management and regulatory reporting. 

In addition to his current position with the organization, Mr. Lord has more than fifteen years of financial services experience including financial/operations principal for First Union Securities and regional controller for American Title Insurance Company.