Money managers enhance parental leave policies, benefits to support new, diverse families

Family — it’s what money managers say their workplace culture feels like, but it’s also an aspiration of employees that firms are willing to support, even if staffers don’t feel completely prepared.

Employers recognized in Pensions & Investments’ 2024 Best Places to Work in Money Management program have enacted more robust, diverse policies around the welcoming of new children. Along with extending leave time and creating inclusive policies, employers have enhanced benefits to promote caretakers’ wellness — both in health and finance.

These policies go well beyond the U.S. Department of Labor’s Family and Medical Leave Act, which allows certain employees to receive up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave per year without the risk of losing their job.

While Polen Capital has been named a Best Places to Work honoree for the past nine years, “certainly, when our employees look back on their lives, I hope they’re thinking about the time they have with their families and loved ones” as opposed to time they were missing from the office, said Rachel Trock, chief people officer at the Boca Raton, Fla.-headquartered investment manager.

“With new babies, they say the days are long, but the years fly by,” she added. “I want to make sure that our employees are taking the time they need to both physically heal, if they are a birthing mother, but also just bond with their children because you’re never going to get that time back. You’re going to blink, and then your kid’s going to be 13 — like mine is.”

Ranked No. 4 among firms with 100 to 499 employees, Polen managed $65 billion in assets as of June 30.

Changing times, changing language

“First and foremost, we refer to it as parental leave — not as maternity leave or paternity leave,” Polen’s Trock said. “We call it parental leave because it doesn’t matter what gender you are if you are a new parent. We have structured our policy so that all parents are eligible for the same amount of leave.”

Along with the policies themselves, many employers named to the 2024 Best Places to Work program use inclusive language when describing parental leave. Parents may be referred to as the birthing parent or nonbirthing parents.

“There is a difference between a birthing parent, who goes through physical change in their body and adjustment there, but then there’s also just a new parent through whatever avenue of parenthood they get to it,” noted Paige Maisonet, head of people at Newfront Retirement Services.

Nonbirthing parents “have an adjustment that’s different but similar in the sense of you’re not healing yourself, but your family is adjusting and you’re bringing a new individual,” she added. Ranked No. 2 among winners with 20 to 49 employees, Newfront managed more than $22 billion in assets as of June 30.

Some firms may also call employees welcoming dependents the primary caregiver or secondary caregiver.

But “it doesn’t matter if you’re a biological parent, an adoptive parent or a foster parent,” Trock added. “It doesn’t matter if you’re male, female or nonbinary.”

At Polen, all parents are given a minimum of 12 weeks for fully paid leave. But the birthing parent receives an additional six-to-eight weeks — or a maximum 20 weeks in total.

“A man taking 12 weeks of parental leave in 2011 — when I had my son — was unheard of,” Trock said. “You would have been frowned upon certainly, but times are changing. Polen is doing our part to make sure that we are treating all parents the same.”

Preparing for a new role

Throwing a baby shower for expectant employees is a standard practice for many employers named to the BPTW program. Among the best gifts winning employers said they can give new parents are resources to be prepared for the role.

For instance, Stadion Money Management gives employees who welcome a new child a DoorDash gift card — a perk that came to light as food-delivery services rose in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“When you have a baby, you are tired, and the last thing you want to do is cook or go out and get food,” said Duane Bernt, president and CEO of the Watkinsville, Ga.-headquartered firm. “There’s something just so easy about ordering DoorDash … The last thing you want is more work, and babies are enough work. That is a nice gesture.”

In addition to the gift card, employees receive a quarterly $25 allowance for goods from CVS Pharmacy through healthcare insurer Aetna. This way, they can save on ibuprofen, bandages and baby goods from the retailer, Bernt added. Named to the Best Places to Work program six times, Stadion managed $2.4 billion in assets as of June 30.

Several winners partner with platforms such as Maven Clinic and Carrot Fertility for their family planning benefit. They can offer stipends and services for areas including fertility treatments, family counseling and breast milk shipping — which is particularly helpful for those on business travel.

Some firms like StepStone Group offer executive coaching to support expectant parents who “are stressed out or putting their career on pause” to welcome a child, said Linnet Coppa, director and global head of human resource service delivery. On top of offering 16 weeks of paid leave for the primary caregiver — not designating the leave as maternity, paternity or parental — the La Jolla, Calif.-headquartered firm provides the access so employees have someone to talk through their anxiety and ease into parenthood.

Ranked No. 5 among winners with 500 to 999 employees, StepStone managed $169 billion in AUM as of June 30.

Similarly, Polen offers new parent advisement for employees as well as their partners or spouses. This coaching starts three months before the baby’s due date to prepare for logistical aspects, such as obtaining a Social Security number to be added to benefits.

“There are all these fine print items that have to happen … and insurance coverage is everybody’s primary concern for their new babies,” Trock said.

How much time an employer gives for paid time off varies by employer, and it can depend on where they’re located or who runs them. For instance, since the Alaska Permanent Fund Corp. is run by the state, it abides by the DOL’s FMLA for unpaid leave, said Chief Human Resources Officer Shannon McCain.

The $80.5 billion Juneau-based sovereign wealth fund also abides by the Alaska Family Leave Act, which provides up to 18 weeks of leave, and also allows staff to use their standard paid leave during this period. For employees hired after 2013, they start with 21 days of paid time off. After two years, five years and 10 years, three more days of paid time off are added. After 15 years, employees receive an additional six days, giving a total of 36 days of paid time off.

Those based in Newfront’s San Francisco headquarters may take up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave, falling in line with the California Family Rights Act. But not all of the company’s employees necessarily receive the same benefits if they’re based outside the state, said Maisonet.

In addition to their respective state’s benefit, a birthing parent employed at Newfront may also take short-term disability leave and “topping off” leave — or accrued paid time off to supplement weekly paid family and medical leave — to receive up to 17 weeks off, she noted.

Compared with most other international markets, the U.S. as a country provides the least amount of support for family leave, Maisonet said. “So these benefits for states and supplemental benefits that employers are offering are the best bet to be able to give people more than the standard six to eight weeks they would get.”

Elsewhere in California, Los Angeles-headquartered PCCP offers primary caregivers 16 weeks of paid leave, and secondary caregivers up to 4 weeks of paid leave, noted Shikha Seth, senior vice president of human resources at the investment manager. Named to the BPTW program four times, PCCP managed $24.2 billion in assets under management as of June 30.

Stadion offers six months of paid maternity leave and three months of paid paternity leave. Aside from paid sabbatical leave after five years of service, Bernt noted that’s the other change in benefits the firm experienced after it was acquired by U.K.-based Smart Pension in 2022. Previously, the birthing parent would receive three months. Paternity leave was less formalized, so the men welcoming children would take about 10 days off through flexible paid time off.

As a father of five kids, Bernt noted “not every pregnancy is the same or every child’s birth is the same,” and they can come with complications. The new policy offers a lot of flexibility as needed to take care of their respective situation.

But given how much time they’d be away from the office and from projects they’re working on, he noted some people feel comfortable with checking in. For those who do decide to completely check out on leave, employees can rely on their workplace family to cover, Bernt said. That kind of respect is rooted in the firm’s culture.

“For me, that type of having-your-back mentality is how you build a culture … it’s an authentic way that we work together,” he added.

First Eagle Investments offers 12 weeks of parental leave for all caregivers, but gives an additional eight weeks of paid leave — or a total of 20 weeks — to birthing parents. Employees have the option of taking their leave all at once, a few weeks at a time or in one-day increments — and last-minute plan changes can be accommodated easily, said Marisa Bernstein, head of benefits.

“We know our employees are busy, and typically, there may be someone else at home and they’re trying to coordinate a schedule,” Bernstein added. “We really enjoy giving our employees room to do what’s best for them and their family — so whether that means taking the leave all at once, or whether that means they come back to work a little bit and then go out.”

Ranked No. 1 among companies with 500 to 999 employees, First Eagle managed $138 billion in assets as of June 30.

Bolstering inclusivity for working parents

In the six-and-a-half years she’s worked at Polen, Trock has not had a female employee who had a baby not come back to work. “I’m so thrilled that our women feel supported by Polen so that they come back and don’t feel they have to choose between support for their families and work — that you can really have both,” she said.

Over 55% of women return to work within the first three months after childbirth despite experiencing lingering related health issues, according to the National Institutes of Health. When it comes to settling back into the workplace, some employers including Diamond Hill provide a parent transition month.

The benefit is like a “grace period,” said Jill Williams, director of human resources at the Columbus, Ohio-headquartered investment firm. Named to the Best Places to Work program twice, the firm managed $31.3 billion in assets as of June 30.

“It’s like a no-guilt month where you can adjust to your new routine,” Williams added. “There’s sometimes emotional hurdles. You might want to go to appointments with your spouse, just figuring out your new daycare drop-off routines.”

And the return to work can vary depending on their individual needs, so Newfront’s Maisonet works with managers to understand what the transition back will look like for employees re-entering the workplace.

When she returned from her parental leave, Maisonet said she found it “was very overwhelming to go through a full week after having been gone for four months.” She took every Wednesday off for the first month, adding that it “gave her an opportunity to reset.”

For Lucy Bannon, receiving a stipend for about a month’s worth of newborn care from NexPoint “has been a game changer,” the chief communications officer said. It enabled her family to have a night nurse for several weeks after welcoming her child.

“It expedited the time and transition back to returning to the office and returning to our full-time jobs,” Bannon added. Across the Dallas-headquartered alternative investment firm, the stipend “eliminated a lot of stress on parents, and the benefit of sleep is one that cannot be overstated.”

Named to the BPTW program three times, NexPoint managed $17.3 billion in assets as of June 30.

Several employers — including Newfront, PCCP and StepStone — also have parents-focused employee resource groups. These initiatives are driven by the caregivers themselves to support one another and provide perspectives.

StepStone’s parental employee resource group works like a support group for caregiving employees who want to share their challenges and tips, said Coppa. For PCCP’s group, working parents find “a sense of belonging” among each other, noted Seth. In an October meeting for Newfront’s CARES employee resource group, the focus was on educating children around LGBTQ+ awareness, and addressed questions on how to respectfully navigate through different conversations, noted Maisonet.

Some firms offer subsidized backup child care such as First Eagle, where Head of Talent Development Sakkara Pama has used its caregiver benefit through child care services provider Bright Horizons Family Solutions for last-minute situations.

At the daycare she uses, the platform’s benefit is also accepted, and can be used to provide occasional relief from the high costs of care. “To have a break a bit and to use those days has been a welcomed surprise,” Pama added.

At Artemis Real Estate Partners, the close-knit culture of the firm enables employees to bring in their children to the office when strapped for care services, including when the school day ends for older children, noted Liz Manevski, senior vice president and head of people and culture. She added that this is largely because of the core values of Co-CEO Deborah Harmon, who realized “when she was raising her family in the early days, one thing she did was to incorporate her kids into work and vice versa to ensure her kids not have this negative connotation around work — which left a very big imprint on her.”

“Everybody has different family circumstances, and there is a focus on going out of your way to support each other inside and outside of work,” Manevski noted.

Named a BPTW winner three times, the Chevy Chase, Md.-headquartered real estate manager had $10.4 billion in AUM as of June 30.