New ULLICO Retirement Services President Gary A. Amelio Plans to Introduce State-of-the-Art, Technology-Driven Products

As the new president of the Retirement Services division of Washington, D.C.-based ULLICO, Gary A. Amelio plans to introduce new products in line with market trends. At ULLICO ($5.5 billion in assets under management) that means developing defined contribution products to complement the defined contribution pension that the union-owned financial services company has traditionally offered its organized labor customers.

In addition to the cultural shift associated with defined contribution products, ULLICO will need to address the significant technology requirements of the plans. "The technology in this area has moved forward so rapidly in such a short time; in order to remain competitive, we need to ensure that we have the most current systems available to service our client needs," Amelio says. "We need to go out and acquire a platform capable of record-keeping, transfer of assets between payroll systems into the plan and between investment funds, and then making distributions back out to participants," he explains.

"People are getting familiar with these products, and demand is increasing," Amelio adds. "Every day people want to be able to access their accounts instantly."

Amelio's new position will not be the first in which he has worked to significantly upgrade technology -- he formerly ran the largest defined benefit contribution plan in the world, the federal government's Thrift Savings Plan. Of his mission at ULLICO, Amelio says, "I want to bring state-of-the-art technology to bear in this industry, to enhance the retirement security of working men and women. That's who our clients are."

Anthony O'Donnell has covered technology in the insurance industry since 2000, when he joined the editorial staff of Insurance & Technology. As an editor and reporter for I&T and the InformationWeek Financial Services of TechWeb he has written on all areas of information ... View Full Bio