Advisory M&A News – 6/17/24

Summit Financial adds SRM Private Wealth; Cetera Financial Group welcomes North Ridge Wealth Planning; Adam Udy Group opens office in Southwest Las Vegas.

Summit Financial Adds SRM Private Wealth 

Summit Financial Holdings, an independent investment advisory firm, expands its national footprint with the launch of SRM Private Wealth. Headquartered in Pasadena, California, this newly formed independent practice is led by Richard McWhorter, managing partner and private wealth adviser, and recently named a Forbes Best-in-State Wealth Advisor.

Joining McWhorter are Sandra Parracino, partner and director of client services, and Kyle Szesnat, client associate. Collectively, they specialize in serving high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth individuals, including executives in the sports and entertainment industry, with a focus on asset protection and growth. SRM attracted more than $1.9 billion in assets under management while previously at Merrill Lynch.

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“Throughout the due diligence process, it became evident that Summit’s open-architecture approach to investment opportunities, combined with Goldman Sachs’ custody solution, was precisely what my team needed in order to succeed,” McWhorter said in a statement.

SRM is the eleventh firm this year to join Summit Growth Partners, Summit’s partnership model that combines cash monetization with equity participation and partnership privileges. By adding SRM, Summit has strengthened its West Coast presence and boosted its assets, bringing the total added to more than $5 billion in 2024.

Cetera Financial Group Welcomes North Ridge Wealth Planning

Cetera Financial Group announced that Michael Volini has joined Cetera Advisor Networks via North Ridge Wealth Planning LLC.

“I look forward to taking advantage of the close-knit culture and boutique approach of North Ridge Wealth Planning, while also utilizing the award-winning technology Cetera has to offer,” Volini said in a statement.

Volini provides financial planning and investment advice to clients and had more than $91 million in assets under administration as of May 25. His practice focuses on the protection, growth and retirement income of Fire Department of New York employees, retirees, city workers and privately held businesses.

“Michael is a talented and dynamic adviser, and I’m proud he’s chosen to affiliate with our community,” Cetera Advisor Networks President Tim Stinson said in a statement. “I know his team will benefit greatly from the unique flexibility, resources and support of our unique regional team model and I look forward to watching Michael grow his already thriving practice at Cetera.”

Adam Udy Group Opens Office in Southwest Las Vegas

Adam Udy Group, a financial guidance and wealth management firm, has announced the expansion of its business with the opening of a new office in Southwest Las Vegas. Adam Udy, principal, was also recently recognized by Forbes as one of the Best-in-State Wealth Advisors for 2024.

“I am excited that we are growing our business, which will allow us to continue helping individuals and families in all aspects of their financial lives,” Udy said in a statement. “The Forbes recognition is an honor and validates that our approach is working and will motivate our team to continue working hard to help our clients achieve their financial objectives.”

Taking a ‘Startup’ Job at a Legacy Insurer

Ben Thomason discusses why working in the in-plan guaranteed income space is akin to roles he’s held at startups.

Ben Thomason has worked at startups in the retirement space, including iJoin and Vestwell. But he says that his recent move to join Allianz Life, an insurance firm with over 100 years of history, is aligned with that startup mentality due to the space he’ll be working in—retirement income in defined contribution plans.

“If you ask people here, we think of ourselves as a startup in a well-resourced organization,” Thomason says. “It has that feel to it, and I’m very comfortable in that space.”

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Allianz hired Thomason this month to lead its DC distribution team for its guaranteed income offerings. He replaces Michal De Feo in the role, who has left the firm.

Thomason says working in the nascent market for in-plan annuity options is similar to working in the target date fund space when those solutions were first coming to market. In that moment, the retirement industry was looking for a solution to the “inadequacy” of qualified default investment alternatives as people were being defaulted into money market or stable value funds without other options, Thomason says.

Today, he says, the industry is searching for an answer to Peak 65, when more retirees than ever are looking to manage decumulation.

“These are well-educated, thoughtful people who just don’t have the tools to build retirement strategies as decumulation vehicles,” he says. “We are working on a way for people to have a comfortable and less anxiety-ridden retirement.”

Allianz entered the market for in-plan annuities in 2022 with its Allianz Lifetime Income+ Annuity for 401(k) plans. In 2023, SS&C Technologies Holdings Inc. added the offering to its DC retirement income platform along with other insurance providers to meet what it called the growing demand.

Thomason will bring to the role experience in startup ventures in the retirement space. He most recently led sales at iJoin, a financial planning, managed account and analytics provider launched in 2017. Before that, he was at Vestwell Holdings, a digital 401(k) provider started in 2016 that has made waves in the retirement space largely focused on the new and small plan space.

Thomason had first started working with Allianz back at Vestwell and then at iJoin, which makes the insurer’s in-plan annuity available to its network of recordkeepers. Thomason says Matt Gray, head of employer markets at Allianz, and he had an “intellectual interest” in the retirement income conundrum that led to regular communication, discussions and eventually his interest in joining Gray’s team.

“He is an actuary by training, and we had a lot of conversations about retirement income as a concept,” Thomason says.

Allianz is competing in what has quickly become a crowded space in recent years. Insurers are partnering with asset managers and recordkeepers to get pension-like annuity options in plans, with options ranging from participants choosing from a menu of annuities to TDFs that will automatically default participants into an annuity when they are closer to retirement. In the meantime, both retail annuity sales and annuity use for pension risk transfers have been skyrocketing in part due to higher interest rates.

Thomason feels confident the demand is there for his new employer’s offerings as the industry grows more comfortable with annuities as a solution to the retirement income puzzle.

“We’re seeing interest from both parties,” he says. “There are the ERISA advisers who very often plan sponsors rely on … and the plan sponsors who are looking for solutions that will benefit their participants.”

Still, he sees the venture still very much “in the early innings” and says it will take time for the in-plan options to make their way into what Thomason calls the “grand mosaic” of the DC marketplace.

“There are plan sponsors, advisers, asset managers, managed account providers, recordkeepers, and all the technology that sits between the recordkeepers,” he says. “They all kind of need to work together in concert.”

Although it’s a complex picture, the network’s interest in this area has shown Thomason early promising signs of his new job.

“Part of the reason I came over here is shown by the number of inquiries from friends in the adviser community, in the asset manager community, in the technology community,” he says. “We’re getting to a place where we need ironclad solutions, which will take awareness and education at each part of the mosaic.”

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