Management Team
Neil Ronco
Principal & Founder
Mr. Ronco’s chief responsibilities include primary client contact and over-all management of Brentwood’s annuity search services. He started his career as a loan officer for the largest banking system in Florida. Since 1984, he has specialized in the annuitization of pension liabilities and pension investments. He has conducted numerous seminars nationally on the subject of discharging fiduciary liability related to terminating defined benefit plans as well as pension risk transfer. His most significant accomplishment is pioneering the concept of an independent fiduciary for group annuity contracts prior to the release of DOL Interpretive Bulletin 95-1. He is a member of Brentwood’s life insurance industry credit committee and one of its most senior members. Mr. Ronco is a licensed insurance agent and earned a B.A. from the University of Virginia, and an M.B.A. from the University of Miami (FL) and formerly FINRA Series 7 & 63 qualified.
P. Scott Harbin
Principal & Founder
Mr. Harbin has been marketing annuity search services for more than twenty-seven years to actuarial firms, ERISA attorneys, Third Party Administrators and directly to corporate plan sponsors. He is a principal in the firm and enjoys a unique prospective on the evolution of the group annuity marketplace and the relationship of insurance companies to defined benefit plans purchasing annuities. Additionally, Scott is responsible for the day-to-day operation of the credit research department and is on Brentwood’s life insurance industry credit committee. Prior to joining what would become Brentwood, he headed the stable value consulting and brokerage department for a Los Angeles based savings bank. He is a licensed life insurance principal in more than thirty-five states and formerly FINRA Series 7 & 63 qualified.
Carlos Tovar
Senior Portfolio Manager/Founder
Mr. Tovar’s role as a portfolio manager and product specialist is to evaluate current participating and non-participating, buy-in and buy-out strategies and separate versus general account annuitization approaches. Carlos’s expertise is in the structuring and analysis of Fixed Income Portfolios including Treasuries, ABSs, MBSs, Corporate Bonds, Hedge Funds, Private Equity, Venture Capital, Stable Value and its derivatives. Earlier in his career as an investment manager, he served as a financial analyst for a major Midwestern Mutual Fund company. He is a member of Brentwood’s life insurance industry credit committee and is a licensed insurance agent and holds a B.S. in business administration from the University of Southern California, with a dual major in finance and accounting and formerly FINRA Series 7 & 63 qualified.
Pieter DeVries
Senior Credit Analyst
Mr. DeVries has over thirty years of experience in portfolio/investment consulting, marketing and financial analysis in the institutional investment arena. Pieter specializes in bond, real estate, stocks, hedge fund, venture capital and private equity analysis. Pieter’s experience stems from twenty years on the trading desk at Merrill, Morgan Stanley and TD Waterhouse. Pieter is chairperson of Brentwood’s life insurance industry credit committee and one of its most senior members. Mr. DeVries holds a B.A from University of California, Los Angeles, a Master’s degree from the University of Maryland and a doctorate from the University of Southern California. In addition to his certifications he served for seven years as a captain in the United States Air Force and formerly FINRA Series 7 & 63 qualified.
Michelle Lam
Senior Vice President
Ms. Lam has over twenty-five years of experience in portfolio/investment consulting, sales marketing and financial analysis in the institutional investment arena. At Brentwood, she specializes in portfolio structuring and investment strategy- including credit analysis and contract analysis for stable asset collective funds, cash management and annuity funds. Ms. Lam earned a B.A. in Economics from the University of California, Los Angeles. In addition, she is enrolled in the CFA program.
Joseph Adair
Credit Analyst
Mr. Adair has over 12 years of credit analysis with Wells Fargo, J.P. Morgan Chase and Brentwood. His chief responsibility is the analysis of equity and real estate portfolios related to Life Insurance Companies. He has developed stress testing models for company originated commercial and residential real estate portfolios based on property type and geographic location. Mr. Adair is a graduate of California State University at Northridge.