PLANADVISER - September/October 2022 - 40

beyond 401(k) / Q&A
Jorge Bernal
Meet SageView Advisory Group's new COO
I
n June, SageView Advisory Group announced
its appointment of Jorge Bernal as chief
operating officer and tasked him with
stewarding the firm's plan to accelerate its
growth as a provider of comprehensive wealth
management solutions for individuals and
families. Bernal joins the firm after serving
as co-head of advisory services for Goldman
Sachs Personal Financial Management.
In 2021,
SageView announced a
strategic
and financial partnership with private
equity firm Aquiline Capital Partners. Owing
somewhat to this relationship, SageView
has acquired six firms since a year ago July
and plans to continue its expansion through
this December. Bernal will play a key role in
the execution of that vision. PLANADVISER
recently spoke with Bernal.
PLANADVISER: As a professional with significant
experience on the wealth management
side of the business, can you speak to the
connections between retirement plans and
wealth management services?
Jorge Bernal: Retirement and wealth are most
definitely complementary, from our point
of view. First, the economics are complementary,
and it's a natural evolution in the
marketplace. Consider this current moment
of volatility. The fact that we can be there, as
your adviser, and speak to your employees
about their financial lives beyond the retirement
plan is a real value-add. We feel we
are uniquely positioned to be able to talk to
clients in this respect.
Forgive me if I sound corny, but we're
rooted in doing what we feel is the right
thing to do, and so we're not just obsessed
with watching the scoreboard tick up. We're
focused on how we can provide the best value
for the clients we serve. They are the core of
our success. During tough times like this is
when you earn your keep as the adviser. So,
to provide services beyond the 401(k) plan,
it's just the natural extension of what we've
been doing historically at SageView.
Speaking about our talent, we have
advisers who are quite competent at serving
both sides-retirement plans and wealth
management clients-but that's not really
our end vision. We want our plan advisers
to be laser-focused on their plan sponsors,
and we want our wealth managers to
be laser-focused on the individual wealth
clients. There are skill sets that cut across,
but dealing with a DC [defined contribution]
plan with 50,000 people in it is very different
from sitting down with an individual and
discussing his potentially significant wealth.
That nuance is important, and it means we're
basing our strategy in the team approach.
That's the beauty of our approach. We
have great advisers lined up against each of
those channels. I can say the level of trust
and commitment here is just fantastic.
PA: How do you see further merger and
acquisition activity feeding into SageView's
mission?
Bernal: The first thing to emphasize is the
importance of cultural fit. That's the top
priority in any transaction. We're being so, so
selective in whom we may ask to join us. We
clearly have some lofty aspirational goals we
want to achieve.
Our conviction for enacting more deals is
based in the knowledge that having the right
talent and the right partners is critical. We
need advisers to want to be here. For us, that
means we have a need to ensure we have
the critical infrastructure that advisers can
leverage-everything from the dedicated
compliance support service to HR [human
resources] support and everything on the
client service side. We want to make this the
place to be. We want to build.
PA: How do you expect that the partnership
with Aquiline Capital will support this
vision?
Bernal: Our having a strong PE [private
equity] partner is incredibly important for
our future. In my short time, I've already seen
how it's been an incredible partner. This is an
advantage we may have over others. [Aquiline]
has shown through its words and actions
that it's going to let this team do what needs
to be done.
It trusts our CEO and founder, Randy Long,
completely, and that was a huge factor in my
making the decision to come here.
-John Manganaro
" We want our
plan advisers
to be laserfocused
on
their plan
sponsors,
and we want
our wealth
managers
to be laserfocused
on
the individual
wealth
clients. "
40 | planadviser.com September-October 2022
http://www.planadviser.com
PLANADVISER - September/October 2022

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