Deals & People January 6, 2022

SageView Reveals Channel Financial Acquisition

The pace of retirement plan adviser industry mergers and acquisitions is already picking up in 2022, with a handful of major deals already being revealed by the likes of SageView, NFP and Hub International.  

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Today, SageView Advisory Group announced its acquisition of Channel Financial.

Channel Financial, a firm that has been recognized as a PLANADVISER Retirement Plan Adviser of the Year finalist in the small team category, advises more than 130 retirement plans with some $3.5 billion in assets under advisement (AUA), in addition to a sizable number of wealth management clients.

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The firm was founded in 2002 with the goal of supporting plan sponsors as they meet their fiduciary responsibilities and pursue better financial and retirement outcomes for employees. It also offers holistic financial planning for individuals.

Channel Financial is based outside Minneapolis, and the acquisition brings seven professionals to SageView, including Partners Matt Gulseth, Jim McDonald and Dan Stewart. These three will join SageView as managing directors.

The announcement of the deal demonstrates that the rapid pace of retirement industry merger and acquisition (M&A) activity is continuing, if not accelerating, in 2022. In addition to this announcement from SageView, so far deals have been announced this week by the likes of Hub International, which has acquired Raffa Financial Services, and NFP, which has acquired Improved Funding Techniques Inc. For its part, SageView has completed four acquisitions in just the past 12 months.

The leadership at Channel Financial says joining SageView allows the firm to offer “best-in-class solutions to our clients while maintaining our core values of offering straightforward advice without conflict and exceptional client service.”

Randy Long, SageView founder and managing principal, says his team is excited to have Channel Financial come on board, noting the acquisition expands his firm’s footprint in the Midwest region.

In Practice January 6, 2022

Hub International Acquires Another Top 100 Advisory Shop

The acquisition of Raffa Financial Services, a recipient of PLANADVISER’s Top 100 recognition, by Hub International shows how leading retirement plan advisory shops will be targets for consolidation in 2022.

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Hub International revealed today its acquisition of Raffa Financial Services, a retirement plan-focused firm headquartered in Rockville, Maryland, that also has an insurance and employee benefit brokerage business.

The services Raffa provides include employee benefits, executive benefits, retirement plan advisory services, risk management, and individual financial and insurance planning. Joe Brown, president of Hub Mid-Atlantic in the Washington, D.C., metro area, says the onboarding of Raffa is a “great addition to Hub.”

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“Its stellar reputation, coupled with its market-leading employee benefits and retirement expertise, will strengthen our ability to serve our clients in the region,” he says.

Hub’s acquisition of Raffa is notable for the fact that Raffa’s retirement planning business has been recognized in the PLANADVISER Top 100 Retirement Plan Adviser awards program, in the small team category. It shows the way Hub’s acquisition targets tend to be financial services firms with well-established retirement plan divisions, as the firm’s leadership has emphasized in interviews with PLANADVISER. According to Hub leadership, the firm is aiming to enable greater growth for the advisers it is bringing on board by supplying them with back-office efficiencies and extensive referral networks via its insurance business, in addition to other client-facing resources.

With the acquisition, Steve Heger, president of Raffa Financial Services; Jon Zeisler, vice president of group benefits; and Eduardo Gimenez, vice president of retirement plan services, will join Hub Mid-Atlantic, alongside their staff.

“We are thrilled to welcome the Raffa Financial team to Hub,” says Joe DeNoyior, national president of Hub Retirement and Private Wealth. “Their focus on delivering complete solutions for their clients to become an employer of choice and getting employees retirement ready is a great fit for our team.”

Heger says his team looks forward to working to expand Hub’s employee benefits and retirement advisory capabilities and to provide clients with “a unique platform of products and services that distinguishes Hub.”

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