Northern Trust Asset Management has made three appointments to strengthen its defined contribution solutions business.

Sabrina Bailey has joined Northern Trust Asset Management as global head of defined contribution, a new position created as Northern Trust looks to expand its retirement solutions business.

Bailey was previously head of US defined contribution at Mercer Investment Consulting in Seattle, WA.

Northern Trust also recently hired Gaobo Pang as a senior behavioral finance specialist. Pang is known for his work at Towers Watson and the World Bank.

Meanwhile, as well as the external hires, Brian Bursua and Patrick Gaskin have joined the DC solutions group in sales and service roles from within Northern Trust, to further align resources and provide focus in serving the recordkeeper channel, the firm said.

Defined contribution plans, in which the employer, employee or both make contributions on a regular basis, are emerging as the primary retirement savings vehicle for individuals, with contributions expected to grow steadily and approach $500 billion by 2019 – almost doubling what it was just three years ago, according to Jessica Sclafani, senior analyst at Cerulli Associates (see a related article here.)