PLANADVISER - September/October 2019 - 18

trendspotting
The Persistent Pace of M&As
Strategic and serial acquirers lead, this year
THE pace of mergers and acquisitions
(M&As) in the retirement plan advisory
space remained high throughout the
first three quarters of this year, with
the number and size of deals exceeding
the expectations of industry analysts.
In late September alone, Hub International
Ltd. announced six retirement
plan advisory-focused deals. Among
the global insurance brokerage firm's
acquisitions were PLANADVISER Top
100 Advisers and PLANSPONSOR
Retirement Plan Adviser of the Year
award winners including EPIC Retirement
Services Consulting LLC, Stone
Street Pearl River LLC and Washington
Financial LLC, etc.
According to David Reich, national
president, Hub Retirement and Private
Wealth,
the firm has targeted wellestablished
retirement plan advisory
practices, in order to gain an immediate
and actionable foothold in the retirement
plan marketplace. Reich says this
is a new market for Hub, and the firm
will provide its 100-plus new advisers
with significantly expanded resources,
especially in terms of new sales capabilities
and insurance-focused products
and services. Ultimately, Hub
expects to cross-sell diversified wealth
management and insurance services
across the new corporate retirement
plan and executive client base.
The series of deals announced
by Hub was the latest in a flurry of
industry M&A transactions closed
this year. Cerity Partners LLC acquired
Blue Prairie Group. CAPTRUST has
been on a serial buying streak of its
own, with a clear focus on merging
the retirement and wealth sides of the
advisory business. One firm brought
recently into CAPTRUST is Watermark
Asset Management, which handles
individual client accounts with a hightouch
approach. On the other hand,
the newly acquired Rogers Financial
is an institutional advisory firm that
advises more than 35 retirement plans.
Similar to the outlook voiced by
strategic acquirers, serial buyers
argue that serving retirement plans
and private individuals does not mean
advisers will be aggressively soliciting
rollovers or engaging in other potentially
problematic cross-selling behaviors.
Instead, they say, building a scalable
firm that does both private wealth
and institutional retirement plan busiTALKING
POINTS
The Experience of States
That Closed DB Plans
Switching from a defined benefit pension
plan to a defined contribution or cash
balance plan didn't address existing
pension underfunding, as promised.
Instead, costs for four states analyzed
increased after the pension plan closed.
Source: National Institute on Retirement Security
Distribution Options on the Rise
Employers increasingly are expanding distribution options in
their DC plans to help employees with draw-down strategies
in retirement.
n Offered partial distributions n Offered installment payments
69% 66%
43%
2015
50%
2018
Source: Alight Solutions 2019 Trends & Experience in DC Plan Survey
Q1-Q3 2019
78% 75%
ness is about creating a holistic service
ecosystem that clients want and need.
Independent shops seeking to
remain solo continue to affiliate with
entities such as GRP Advisor Alliance
and Resources
Investment Advisors
LLC, that offer access to many of the
solutions a CAPTRUST or Hub can
bring to bear. -John Manganaro
18 | planadviser.com September-October 2019
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PLANADVISER - September/October 2019

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