PLANADVISER - January/February 2021 - 9

and advisory businesses to Empower,
Ascensus and OneDigital.
In its limited prognostications about
2021, the Echelon Partners' analysis
highlights that many new players have
" flocked " to the wealth management and
retirement plan advisory industry over
the past year.
" Professional buyers continued their
aggressive push to acquire high-quality
RIAs, and the industry's high profitability
and steady cash flows are increasingly
attracting new entrants and resulting in
increased competition and higher valuations, "
the analysis concludes.
By " professional buyers, " the analysis
is referring to parties such as private
equity firms or larger diversified financial
services entities that work with clients
across the investment, insurance and
brokerage spectrum. The aforementioned
deal between Aquiline Capital Partners
and SageView represents the former case,
while the various acquisitions already
enacted this year by Hub International
and OneDigital represent the latter-as
does the acquisition of Compass Financial
Partners by Marsh & McLennan
Agency LLC (MMA).
All of these early 2021 transactions
highlight the same pressures and opportunities
that have been reshaping the
retirement plan advisory industry for
years. Commenting
on the Compass
acquisition, for example, Bill Jeatran, president
of MMA, says the transaction represents
a significant enhancement of MMA's
capabilities as the firm seeks to further
integrate health, wealth and retirement
services into its total well-being solution
for clients. Besides its employee benefits-focused
business lines, MMA also
offers commercial property, casualty and
personal lines of insurance.
CAPTRUST, another large advisory
firm that is expected to be active in
acquisitions this year, explains its goal
as building a business model that can
support advisers working with both
private wealth management and institutional
retirement plan clients. The firm's
leadership says the strategy is about
creating a holistic service ecosystem that
clients want and need, especially as the
defined contribution (DC) plan system
matures and becomes a key component
of individuals' retirement income.
Notably, CAPTRUST itself, last year,
took on a minority investment from GTCR,
a private equity firm mainly focused on
leveraged buyouts, leveraged recapitalizations,
growth capital and roll-up transactions.
Other GTCR portfolio companies
include organizations across the health
care, technology and financial services
spaces. -John Manganaro
Earnings
Insufficient
Bonnie-Jeanne
MacDonald, director
of financial security
research at the National
Institute of Ageing at
Ryerson University, has
found that conventional
replacement rates
and living standard
continuity were
incorrectly correlated.
Earnings are not the
only factor, she says.
Look at a participant's
spouse's earnings, also
government transfers,
investment outcomes,
house ownership, debt,
tax-exempt savings,
etc. " No percentage
will capture this entire
picture. Seventy
percent is insufficient
information. "
Part-Timers' Retirement Confidence Suffers, Full-Timers' Improves
l Confidence has declined l Confidence has stayed the same l Confidence has improved l Don't know/Not sure
In the midst of the
pandemic, full-time workers
are more likely to say their
retirement confidence has
improved, compared with
part-time workers.
Source: Transamerica Center for Retirement
Studies, 20th Annual Transamerica Retirement
Survey of Workers, December 2020
9%
21%
20%
All
workers
50%
23%
Fulltime
51%
7%
19%
15%
13%
Parttime
50%
22%
*
planadviser.com
January-February 2021 | 9

http://www.planadviser.com

PLANADVISER - January/February 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of PLANADVISER - January/February 2021