IRIC Head Kevin Crain Joins OpenArc as Consultant

Kevin Crain

OpenArc Corporate Advisory LLC announced Monday that Kevin Crain joined the firm as a strategic consultant. Crain will work with OpenArc’s leadership team on strategic growth, market positioning, original research and thought leadership on retirement, corporate benefits and long-term financial outcomes.

OpenArc, an Atlanta-based registered investment advisory and wealth management firm, was formed last September by a breakaway team from Merrill Lynch and received a minority investment from RIA platform Dynasty Financial Partners. OpenArc had more than $10 billion in client assets as of March 27.

Crain, who has spent more than four decades working in retirement services, confirmed to PLANADVISER that he will continue in his current role as executive director of the Institutional Retirement Income Council, which he has filled since 2024.

In a LinkedIn post, Crain wrote he found OpenArc appealing because it is an independent adviser working on corporate benefits and wealth.

“In a retirement services market increasingly defined by the convergence of workplace benefits and personal wealth, that combination of independence and integration is a compelling differentiator,” Crain wrote.

Crain retired from Bank of America in 2023 after 20 years in senior leadership positions, including head of institutional retirement and benefit services and head of retirement research and insights. He also previously worked for Putnam Investments, Fidelity Investments, and Bankers Trust Co., according to LinkedIn.

Crain said he will continue his other advisory and consulting roles, including as a senior adviser to both McKinsey and the Milken Institute. He is also a member of the Global Coalition on Aging Advisory Council, a visiting executive for the Gerontological Society of America, and an honorary member of the Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association.