Corporate Roundup: Carson Group Buys $1B Firm, John Hancock Hires Participant Outcomes Leader
This week in our corporate roundup, Carson Group acquires Sweet Financial Partners, PensionPro partners with data collection processor Dynamis, Alera Group collaborates with Venrollment, John Hancock Retirement and UBS announce new hires, and more.
Carson Group Buys $1B Firm
Carson Group, a leading wealth management and financial services firm, announced its second largest deal to date with the addition of Sweet Financial Partners, a $1 billion AUA firm based in Fairmont, Minnesota.
Sweet Financial Partners is led by managing partner and wealth advisor, Bryan Sweet. The 12-person team will continue to operate as Sweet Financial Partners and retain its local focus while leveraging Carson’s national resources. Sweet Financial specializes in several key areas including, retirement planning, tax efficiency, wealth transfer and business exit planning.
Burt White, CEO of Carson Group, commented on the partnership, “Bryan and his team exemplify the values and client-centric approach that Carson stands for. Their expertise in comprehensive financial planning and commitment to a ‘life well lived’ mentality make them an ideal addition to our advisor community.”
“Our team is excited to join forces with Carson Wealth. This collaboration allows us to maintain our local focus while tapping into the resources of a national brand. It’s a natural progression that aligns perfectly with our culture of inspiring clients to realize their dreams are possible,” said Sweet.
Sweet Financial Partners were advised by Wise Rhino Group, which provides M&A advisory services for the financial services industry including wealth advisors and retirement consultants.
Carson Group currently manages $38 billion in assets and serves more than 50,000 client families among its advisory network of 150+ partner offices, including more than 50 Carson Wealth locations.
John Hancock Names Participant Outcomes Head
John Hancock Retirement, a company of Manulife Investment Management, has appointed Shannon Stiles in a newly created role as head of Participant Outcomes. In this capacity, she will be focused on enhancing participant engagement, education, and financial wellness, to help them confidently save for their retirement goals.
The role is part of a wider effort, led by Fraser Wiswell, head of Global Participant Outcomes, to drive positive global retirement outcomes which the firm will measure by improved savings, increases in advice utilization, and broader satisfaction with Manulife Investment Management’s retirement services across Manulife’s nearly nine million retirement participants and members worldwide.
“We continue to be unwavering in our commitment to our clients and to being their partner of choice in assisting them to achieve their retirement goals,” said Wiswell. “With this dedicated role, we strive to be well-positioned to partner with plan sponsors and financial professionals to deliver innovative solutions and exceptional support to our participants, and to help them achieve the retirement they have in mind.”
Prior to joining John Hancock Retirement, Stiles had been at Fidelity Investments for more than 25 years where she held multiple participant communicatiops, marketing, and retirement client-focused responsibilities, most recently as vice President of Employee Marketing Strategy & Operations.
PensionPro Partners with Dynamis
AmericanTCS’s PensionPro, a provider of workflow automation software for third-party administrators (TPAs), is partnering with Dynamis, a 7 Simple Machines product specializing in data collection and processing for third-party administrators (TPAs).
This collaboration aims to address common operational pain points by providing tools for both daily operations and year-end reporting.
An automated data flow between the PensionPro and Dynamis platforms will provide TPAs with reporting on census, gross compensation, payroll and paycheck data from over 200 human resource information providers.
Dynamis also provides TPAs with three years of historical data and advanced data intelligence capabilities that can detect errors in their current census data combined with a series of checks around payroll cadences and other potential payment issues.
“TPAs are required to ensure the data they collect on retirement plan participants is accurate, and much of the industry is collecting this information manually, which not only takes time but introduces the possibility of data-entry errors,” said Darren Conner, PensionPro’s chief operating officer. “Dynamis applies intelligence to payroll feeds throughout the year, catching problems early and reducing year end payroll adjustments. With this integration, analyzed payroll data will feed seamlessly into PensionPro. Dynamis brings a new level of service to managing payroll data and I consider this is an essential tool for TPAs delivering 3(16) services.”
Karim Lessard, CEO of 7 Simple Machines added, “We built Dynamis from the ground up to support the business needs of TPAs. We knew the unbundled market needed a platform that could drive efficiency for administrators, open up new revenue streams and accommodate changes from Secure 2.0. Dynamis automates the collection of payroll and census data, highlighting troubling data errors in real time. The platform radically streamlines year-end testing and allows TPAs to act as 3(16) fiduciaries with confidence. Integrating census data with Pension Pro will reduce the burden of work associated with year-end testing and provide efficiencies for TPAs and plan sponsors.
Alera Group Collabs with Venrollment on Retirement, Healthcare Comms
Alera Group is partnering with Venrollment to offer its portal nationally to the firm’s network of retirement plan advisors.
The platform intends on simplifying retirement and healthcare communication for advisors, offering a white-labeled web-based portal featuring video as a key feature.
Alera Group will offer plan sponsor clients of all sizes access to the Venrollment portal as part of the firm’s newly branded FinWell Connect financial wellness program.
“Our goal is to allow our advisors to scale their communications, but do so without compromising important details or personal touch,” said Christian Mango, executive vice president and national practice leader of Retirement Plan Services. “Venrollment gives us the mechanism to centralize communications and allows us to build custom plan videos, send personalized video messages, and share built-in educational videos and seamlessly connect them to one-on-one coaching.”
Venrollment, based in Wayne, Pennsylvania, developed its platform for advisors to create and deliver customized, plan-specific video content on demand. Alera Group’s advisors will all have access to their own Venrollment microsites, from which they can create plan-sponsor specific, branded portals.
“We aim to be the most efficient, effective way for advisors to communicate with and educate plan participants,” said Justin LaSalle-Tarantin, Venrollment’s president. “Alera Group is committed to maintaining high levels of connection with both plan sponsors and participants, and we’re honored to be part of Alera Group’s rapid growth and comprehensive offering.”
World Investment Advisors Partners With RJ
World Investment Advisors announced today its new custodial relationship with Raymond James Financial Inc. (RJ).
The partnership between the two firms comes approximately two months after World acquired Boston Harbor Wealth Advisors, a $3.5 billion firm and an RJ partner for almost ten years.
With this new partnership, World says its excited to expand on its typical advisor demographic to include businesses who have worked with RJ, from individual practices with $100 million in assets to multi-advisor teams and firms managing billions of dollars.
“We are excited about our new relationship with Raymond James and the additional resources it allows us to bring our advisors,” said Troy Hammond, CEO of World Investment Advisors. ” The addition of another custodian choice – especially one that comes with this level of service and support – is very much in line with these key pillars of our wealth management value proposition.” Adding another custodial option for the World’s advisors and their clients marks the latest enhancement of the firm’s wealth management platform. “
UBS Wealth Management Welcomes Family Office Advisor
UBS Wealth Management has announced that James Kosan has joined the firm in its Riverside, California office.
As an advisor delivering comprehensive wealth management solutions, Kosan’s primary focus is working with affluent families, providing Family Office services and specializing in life transitions.
Kosan manages complex family strategies, business succession strategies, inheritance planning, trust review and design, and tax minimization strategies, working with clients and other professionals to design custom portfolios that help meet clients’ retirement planning and personal financial goals. Prior to joining UBS, he worked as a financial advisor with Morgan Stanley since 2012 and prior to that, he spent six years with Merrill Lynch.
“It is my pleasure to welcome Jim to our Riverside office,” says Pat Lizza, market director for the Inland Empire offices of UBS. “As a senior portfolio manager and financial advisor, Jim has a strong knowledge of key asset classes and great depth in retirement planning and investment decision-making. He will be a great addition to our team and to helping our clients.”
Kosan earned his bachelor’s degree in business management at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. He holds his Series 7 and 66 securities licenses and has earned a senior portfolio manager designation.