Advisory M&A

Hub expands in Southeast; Nava acquires benefits consultancy; Cerity adds wealth managers focused on women-owned businesses; and more.

Hub Expands in Southeast With Benefits Consultancy Acquisition

Hub International Ltd. has acquired Edbrooke/Stelcner and Associates Inc., a Coral Gables, Florida-based employee benefits brokerage. Chicago-based Hub did not disclose terms of the transaction.

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Edbrooke/Stelcner adds to Hub’s 401(k) retirement plan consulting, HR benefits and life insurance programs to large employers in the Southeast, according to an announcement. The employee benefits firm specializes in the aviation, hospitality and health care industries.

Lissette Fernandez, Edbrooke/Stelcner’s president and co-founder, and her team will join Hub’s South Florida offices and take the name Edbrooke/Stelcner and Associates, a Hub International company.

Nava Benefits Acquires Consulting Firm Nielsen Benefits

Employee benefits brokerage firm Nava Benefits announced it has acquired Nielsen Benefits Group Inc., a company that designs benefits solutions aimed at lowering health care costs for small and midsize employers.

Nava’s acquisition of NBG is intended to provide “deep consulting expertise with cutting-edge technology” to bring a “modern benefits approach” to more midsize employers, according to a press release.

“In getting to know the NBG team, three things were crystal clear: They share our belief that benefits brokers have an outsized ability to fix healthcare; they care deeply about leveling up the member experience and supporting employees throughout each stage of their healthcare journey; and they actually deliver on the promise of lowering costs,” Brandon Weber, CEO and co-founder of Nava Benefits, said in a statement.

Cerity Brings On Wealth Manager Lumina Financial

Cerity Partners LLC is merging with Lumina Financial Consultants LLC, a wealth management and financial planning firm that focuses on serving women, their families and their businesses.

Lumina’s offices in the San Francisco and Richmond, Virginia, metro areas will take on the Cerity Partners name, as led by co-principals Jeanie Schwarz and Laurie Fried. The addition of Lumina Financial will expand Cerity’s ability to provide financial planning and wealth management to women.

“We see this partnership as a terrific way to enhance the breadth of our firm’s services with talented partners and colleagues in key markets while also expanding our existing capabilities in serving the needs of women, their families and their businesses,” Claire O’Keefe, Cerity Partners’ head of partner development, said in a statement.

Wealth Consulting Adds V Wealth Team, $2B AUA

The Las-Vegas-based Wealth Consulting Group is bringing on Overland Park, Kansas-based V Wealth Advisor LLC to expand its investment adviser team and assets under advisement.

The V Wealth acquisition will bring with it 43 investment adviser representatives, increasing WCG’s team to 145. The deal will also bring an additional $2 billion in AUA, bringing WCG’s total AUA to $7 billion.

“We believe that WCG’s unique value proposition combining the financial planning support to advisers and flexible separate account investment management strategies will help the former V Wealth advisers offer more value to their clients,” Jimmy Lee, CEO and founder of WCG, said in a statement.

The V Wealth team is led by Tom Blumer, Brett Lange and Dan Cherra.

“The WCG team provides exactly what our advisors have been asking for, which are additional services they believe are valuable to their clients,” Blumer said in a statement.

Changing Workforce: Employees Over 55 Will Make Up 25% of US Labor Market by 2031

A Bain & Co. study found that the so-called Great Resignation has become the ‘Great Sabbatical,’ as many return to work.  


By 2030, the number of jobs shifting to workers older than 55 will reach 150 million worldwide, nearly equal to the entire working population of the U.S. and 10 percentage points higher than in 2011, according to a study from Bain & Co.
 

Fewer young people have joined the workforce in the last two decades, and while early retirement has long been the trend, it is now slowly going into reverse, the researchers noted. Among American workers, 41% now expect to work beyond age 65, compared to 12% three decades ago, a trend that will push the percentage of U.S. workers older than 55 to 25% in 2031 from 18% in 2021, according to Bain.  

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This shift will have implications for employers—and the benefits consultants and advisers who work with them—and require them to consider the unique needs of this cohort of employees, Bain stressed in its report. 

“There was an increase in retirements in some countries during the peak-Covid Great Resignation, but that moment is now looking more like the Great Sabbatical as those workers increasingly return to work,” James Root, a partner in Bain and co-chair of the firm’s Bain Futures think tank, said in a statement. “People work longer into their lives, yet we’ve found it rare to see organizations put programs in place to fully integrate older workers into their talent system.” 

As workers approach retirement, they tend to take on more part-time and self-employed positions. However, research shows this does not indicate a lack of commitment. Older workers expressed more loyalty to their companies, as well as higher satisfaction in work and life.  

However, few firms have recognized the evolving needs of experienced workers, according to the researchers. In the U.S., older workers received training less often than their younger counterparts.  

“With the right tool kit, aging workers can help employers get ahead of their talent gaps and create high-quality jobs that turn older workers’ skills and experience into a competitive advantage,” Andrew Schwedel, a Bain partner and co-chair of Bain Futures, said in a statement. “Companies that invest in recruiting, retaining, reskilling, and respecting the strengths of this group will set themselves up for success as the demographics of the workforce continue to shift.” 

The Bain report suggested that to attract and retain older workers, employers should understand their motivations. While workers under the age of 60 are primarily driven by compensation, their older counterparts prioritize having an interesting job that provides autonomy and flexibility. They are more focused on mastering their craft and mentoring others to do the same.  

Reskilling older workers for the next 10 years is also important, the research noted, particularly for the latest technology. For workers between the ages of 55 and 64, almost one-quarter (22%) said they needed more tech skills. 

The research in Bain’s recent study, “Better with Age: The Rising Importance of Older Workers,” surveyed 40,000 workers across 19 countries.  

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