Kia McCallister-Young Could Help Your Retirement Clients Save: Personnel Move

What You Need to Know

The new America Saves campaign director is a single mother and an Air Force veteran.
Ameritas has a new executive vice president, retirement plans.
Nationwide has increased its minimum wage to $21 per hour this year, from $18 per hour in 2021.

The Consumer Federation of America has named Kia McCallister-Young director of its America Saves outreach campaign.

The Washington-based group started the campaign in 2007, to promote financial literacy and encourage Americans to save money, reduce debt and build wealth.

McCallister-Young was previously the campaign’s co-director.

She started out serving in the Air Force. She later worked as a freelance writer and as a social media strategy services provider.

She began working for the Consumer Federation of America in 2019.

She said that she thinks she understands the people the America Saves campaign is trying to reach because she’s the kind of person the campaign serves — an Air Force veteran, a former military spouse, a Black woman and a single mother raising three children in a high-cost-of-living area.

Ameritas

Ameritas has named Jim Kais executive vice president, retirement plans, effective March 6.

Kais has been a senior vice president at the the Lincoln, Nebraska-based company since 2018. One of his jobs has been revamping the company’s retirement plans distribution system, and another has been managing Ameritas’ acquisition of BlueStar Retirement Services, a multiple employer retirement plan administrator.

He worked earlier in his career for Merrill Lynch, Prudential Financial, ADP and Transamerica.

He has a bachelor’s degree from Ursinus College.

Elite

Elite Insurance Partners has hired Juan Escoda to be its first director of sales.

Lincoln Financial

Lincoln Financial has hired Adam Cohen to be chief accounting officer.

Cohen moved to the Radnor, Pennsylvania-based life, annuity and retirement company from Archwell Holdings. He has also worked in the audit practice at Ernst & Young.

He has a bachelor’s degree from Bucknell, a master’s degree in accounting from the University of Virginia and a master’s degree in finance from the University of Pennsylvania.

Nationwide

Nationwide — the insurance, annuity and retirement services giant — says it has increased its minimum wage to $21 per hour, from $18 per hour in 2021.

The increase has affected about 600 of the company’s 25,000 workers.

The company estimates that it has about 1,200 open positions.