banking | Top 101 Industry Experts

Vice President, ERISA Compliance Manager
City National Bank
San Diego, CA, USA
http://www.cnb.com
Industry: Finance
Field: Retirement Planning

“To be successful, you have to be a good listener,” says Sharon A. Burt, vice president and ERISA compliance manager for City National Bank. Starting her career in the insurance field, where she handled retirement plans, Ms. Burt was given the opportunity to transfer over to the financial and banking industry. She joined City National Bank in October 1996 and has become an integral part of its success. Her dedication and passion for her position have enabled her to excel and successfully assist her clients in securing their financial futures.

Ms. Burt graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles with a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics. In her current role, she uses her previous experience and skills in retirement planning and compliance to oversee the ERISA compliance unit, handle the legal plan documents for retirement plans, consult on retirement plans, and report finances to governments on the retirement plans. Ms. Burt remains updated in her field through her affiliations with The Western Pension & Benefits Council, the Association of Specialized and Professional Accreditors, and the National Institute of Pension Administrators.

In 2011, to recognize her dedication to her employer, Ms. Burt was given the Highest Achievement Award from City National Bank. As the years progress, she looks to continue drawing on her experience, strong skill set and diverse knowledge of finance to work with clients around the world. Continue reading →

Director of Compliance
Trustmark National Bank
Industry: Finance
Focus: Quality Compliance

Compliance is a polarizing field. Either you love it, or you can’t stand it. Fortunately, when he was tapped by his employers to become a compliance officer, Ferol Hettick found that he loved the field. Since that time, he has taken on additional responsibilities and become the director of compliance for Trustmark National Bank. Although compliance as a field has had its ups and downs over the years, Mr. Hettick stresses to newcomers that the key to success is not knowing all of the answers, but rather, knowing where to find them.

Mr. Hettick is a believer in the power of teamwork. He does not truly feel successful unless his team is successful, and his confidence in his employees is such that he would pit them against any other team in the country and be confident in their success. Mr. Hettick encourages his staff to find ways to work with the needs of the bank, rather than simply turning down every request that seems unfeasible. This requires additional diligence, to be sure, as every angle of a proposal must be carefully scrutinized in order to find the necessary leeway to implement the requested changes. Nevertheless, Mr. Hettick feels that this can-do spirit and refusal to accept what seems impossible to be one of the hallmarks of his management style, and it is one of the aspects of his personality that he feels separates him from the majority of his competitors.

Though Mr. Hettick greatly enjoys his work as a compliance director for a bank, he is also aware of a major series of changes on the horizon that may drastically impact Trustmark National Bank’s success. In January 2014, eight regulatory mortgage changes will be made to the bank’s mortgage lending policies, which could limit mortgage lending. These added requirements, Mr. Hettick explains, could drive away lenders and cause them to drop out of the market. With this in mind, Mr. Hettick is looking to ride out the changes and groom a successor so that Trustmark National Bank’s compliance staff is left in capable hands upon his retirement. Continue reading →