Carmela L. Elco

President
CElco@ResourcesForRetirement.com

215.860.8033

“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.”

As president of RESOURCES for Retirement, one of the premier retirement plan advisory firms in the country, Ms. Elco is leading the firm with the same dedication to superior client service that has been its hallmark since inception. She takes a personal interest in every client providing extensive HR, investment and retirement plan knowledge to help them build an effective and competitive program for their employees.

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.

Career Highlights
Ms. Elco began her career with RESOURCES for Retirement as Vice President of Client Services where she was responsible for the investment advisory services and working closely with clients to make certain they receive the best service available to meet their specific needs.

In 2008, Ms. Elco testified before the U.S. Department of Labor's ERISA Advisory Council on the topic of Target Date Fund analysis. The council is charged with providing advice and policy recommendations on retirement security and other employee benefit issues to the Secretary of Labor. Ms. Elco’s testimony, along with other nationally recognized industry leaders, was used to craft DOL recommendations on best practices for plan sponsors on the evaluation and analysis of target date funds within company sponsored retirement plans.

Prior to joining RESOURCES for Retirement, she was a Retirement Benefits Manager for an internationally recognized 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.

Education and Affiliations
Ms. Elco has extensive training as a Human Resources professional as well as in investment analytics. She is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh and holds an MA in Human Resources Management from St. Francis University. She has her FINRA Series 6, 63, 65, 7, 24, Pennsylvania Health Insurance Representative registrations and has obtained her Accredited Investment Fiduciary (AIF®) designation from the Foundation of Fiduciary Studies.

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Dana Brigandi

AVP, Business Development

Dana@ResourcesForRetirement.com

“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 and 63 registrations.

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.

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Cindy DeGulis

Client Services

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.