Deals & People April 30, 2024

BIP Wealth Acquires The Money Advisor Group

Separately, Diversify Advisor Network launches a retirement plan advisory services program for financial advisers.

Reported by

The Money Advisor Group, a registered investment advisory firm focusing on managing investments and planning for retirement, announced Tuesday it has agreed to be acquired by BIP Wealth, an Atlanta-based registered investment adviser, as part of its new BIP Alliance program.

Meanwhile, in an additional nod to industry consolidation, Diversify Advisor Network, a privately held independent wealth management firm, is launching a retirement plan advisory services program.

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Money Advisor Group

With the TMAG deal, BIP Wealth will bring over $300 million in assets under management for its clients to BIP Alliance, making the firm’s total AUM to over $3.3 billion. The acquisition is set to close on May 22.

TMAG was founded in 2001 by Tim Money, president and chief investment officer, to provide individual and corporate clients with financial advisory services, including retirement planning and wealth management. Money will remain president of the group, and the entire TMAG team will join BIP.

“From the beginning, our focus has been on taking care of our beloved clients and team members,” Money said in a statement. “Our earliest discussions made it clear that BIP aligns with our values and priorities.”

BIP Wealth offers investment management and planning services tailored to high-net-worth individuals, families, institutional clients and corporate retirement plans. BIP Wealth serves clients nationwide and has offices in Atlanta, Alpharetta, Nashville, and now Columbus, Georgia.

The acquisition will provide TMAG clients and potential investors in West Central Georgia, East Alabama and nearby areas with broader access to BIP’s wealth management platform, offering private market investment options and advanced planning services, according to the announcement.

Diversify Advisor Network

Also announced on Tuesday, Diversify Advisor Network, a privately held independent wealth management firm, has launched its retirement plan advisory services program to provide to other wealth managers.

The program will be led by Partners Todd Nuttall and David Gardner, who merged their firm Caliber Wealth Management into Diversify earlier this year.

“With the launch of Diversify’s retirement plan advisory services, we can now share our unique retirement plan expertise and process with our peers across the network,” Nuttall said in a statement.

The team will offer services in plan design and plan governance, fiduciary services, participant education, research among others.

“They have also built a framework that helps the advisers capture additional wallet share from the plan participants, giving clients access to financial advice for more than just their company retirement plan,” Stuart Matheson, chief strategy officer at Diversify, said in a statement. “Advisers get to keep and even grow assets that they might otherwise miss out on, all without having to be experts in the intricacies of retirement plans.”

Deals & People April 30, 2024

Fiducient Promotes Goss to President

He will succeed Mark Wetzel in the role and report to Sabrina Bailey, named CEO last year.

Reported by

Fiducient Advisors, a retirement plan and investment advisory affiliate of NFP, an Aon company, has promoted Mike Goss to the role of president, the firm announced Tuesday.

Goss, a managing partner and member of the executive team will succeed Mark Wetzel, who has been in the president and managing partner role since 2006. Wetzel will be retiring effective May 3, according to Fiducient.

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In the new role, Goss will lead the firm’s business development and marketing efforts along with working with current and future clients; he will also maintain his current role as chief revenue officer, according to the announcement.

Mike Goss

The moves come amid recent changes for the firm. In July of last year, Fiducient named CEO Sabrina Bailey to head the firm. She joined from the London Stock Exchange Group plc, where she was global head of investment and wealth solutions. Meanwhile, at the end of last year, affiliate firm NFP was acquired by Aon plc, though with the arrangement NFP is continuing to operate independently under the new parent, according to the firms.

Goss’ promotion is part of “a natural progression that we set out a few years back for succession planning,” he says, noting that there will be no change to the firm’s operating model, and he will continue “helping the firm grow” in accordance with CEO Bailey’s strategy. 

Goss is a co-founding member of Fiducient, having been part of the startup for Fiduciary Investment Advisors LLC, which combined with DiMeo Schneider & Associates LLC and then rebranded as Fiducient Advisors in 2021. He has advised institutional clients for more than 20 years in portfolio construction, asset allocation, investment manager oversight, fee analysis and peer benchmarking.  

“As a founding member of Fiducient Advisors, Mike’s appointment is a testament to the significant and positive impact he’s had—and will continue to have—on our people, clients, firm and local community,” CEO Bailey said in a statement. “Since co-founding Fiducient and serving as Managing Partner, we believe Mike has demonstrated outstanding support for our nonprofit, family office, corporate and governmental clients. He’s a natural choice to follow in Mark’s footsteps.”

In his role as president, Wetzel led the firm’s strategy and operations; he was also a co-founder of Fiduciary Investment Advisors with Goss, and said in a statement that his colleague is “the perfect person to fill the president position.”

Fiducient, based in Chicago, has about 215 employees and more than $309 billion in assets representing plan sponsors, endowments and foundations, financial instutions and individuals and families.

“All four business lines have been growing nicely, all organically,” Goss says. In terms of new growth areas, he notes that firm recently launched its own pooled employer plan and is coming to market with a proprietary financial wellness offering.

“We continue to see increased demand from clients that would prefer to partner with us directly on wellness,” he says. “It’s an ask we continue to receive and we wanted to create the right model for it.”

Goss also noted that the firm has been able to attract and keep advisers in part due to a compensation model “heavily focused on retention and service as opposed to business development goals,” with most clients coming via referrals.

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