New York Life's retirement income security division -- which includes its mutual fund and annuity businesses -- has tapped Allyson McDonald as the head of external wholesaling for third-party distribution. McDonald succeeds Mike Coffey.

A spokeswoman for New York Life confirmed that "Coffey left the company for personal family reasons and has relocated to the Midwest."

McDonald, an alum of Fidelity Investments who more recently worked with the Clinton Foundation, has been with New York Life since May. She joined as senior vice president and head of relationship management.

Taking over that role is Benjamin Woloshin, who previously worked at Goldman Sachs, where he was vice president responsible for institutional relationships in the reinsurance group. He also worked at Putnam and MetLife.

Both McDonald and Woloshin report to Chris Blunt, executive vice president of the retirement income security business.

New York Life officials said they had record sales of MainStay mutual funds [see profile] in the first half of the year, with more than $5 billion. Sales through third-party channels accounted for more than $4 billion of the total. Net sales in the first half hit $2.3 billion, placing sales on "a record pace" for the year, executives said.

Company Press Release

BEN WOLOSHIN JOINS NEW YORK LIFE AS HEAD OF RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT FOR RETIREMENT INCOME SECURITY BUSINESS

Allyson McDonald to Head External Wholesaling for Third Party Distribution

NEW YORK, October 13, 2010 � Benjamin Woloshin has joined New York Life Insurance Company as senior vice president and head of relationship management for its Retirement Income Security (RIS) business, reporting to Executive Vice President Chris Blunt, the company announced today.

Mr. Woloshin joins the company from Goldman Sachs, where he was vice president responsible for institutional relationships in its Reinsurance Group.

Mr. Blunt said, �Ben�s investment experience at Putnam, his insurance industry experience at MetLife, and his experience in longevity risk management at Goldman Sachs give him an outstanding skill set for our retirement income business. These skills perfectly position RIS relationship management to enhance and strengthen our strategic relationships with nationally-recognized third parties. These third-party platforms are of increasing importance to RIS, allowing us to help improve the retirement security of many more millions of Americans and complement all that our agents do for their clients� retirement security.�

In addition to hiring Mr. Woloshin, Mr. Blunt said he plans to continue building this important RIS relationship management area and is actively looking to hire several additional senior-level relationship managers who will report to Mr. Woloshin.

Mr. Woloshin replaces Senior Vice President Allyson McDonald, who has assumed responsibility for the external sales operation of RIS, also reporting to Mr. Blunt.

Ms. McDonald joined New York Life in May 2010. Previously, she was a senior vice president at Fidelity Investments in charge of sales and relationship management for their Charitable Services organization, as well as having held prior positions at Goldman Sachs and Federated Investors. Most recently, Ms. McDonald was with the Clinton Foundation, where she was responsible for development and communications strategy.

Mr. Blunt noted that the RIS business is coming off a record first half of sales in 2010, and the outlook is exceedingly bright for continued strong results going forward. The income annuity business set a new six-month record of $870 million in 2010. On the accumulation side, mutual funds set a sales record of more than $5 billion in the first six months, with strong performances from third-party channels accounting for more than $4 billion of the total. First half net sales of mutual funds of $2.3 billion are on a record pace for the year.

"Our results continue to validate that we are having good success with our third-party distribution strategy, complementing our core distribution system of career agents. Our ability to achieve these results was helped by the strong line-up of funds managed by our investment management subsidiary," Mr. Blunt said.

New York Life Insurance Company, a Fortune 100 company founded in 1845, is the largest mutual life insurance company in the United States* and one of the largest life insurers in the world. New York Life has the highest possible financial strength ratings from all four of the major credit rating agencies. Headquartered in New York City, New York Life�s family of companies offers life insurance, retirement income, investments and long-term care insurance. New York Life Investments** provides institutional asset management and retirement plan services. Other New York Life affiliates provide an array of securities products and services, as well as institutional and retail mutual funds.

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