AssetMark Acquires $12 Billion in Wealth TAMP Assets from Morningstar

AssetMark, which runs a wealth management platform for advisers, announced a partnership with Thursday whereby AssetMark will acquire $12 billion in assets from the Morningstar Wealth Turnkey Asset Management Platform.

Under the agreement, Assetmark’s wholly owned registered investment advisory will take on the assets, giving Morningstar Wealth’s TAMP clients and financial advisers access to AssetMark’s platform, which offers investment strategists, adviser technology and business consultancy. The performance histories of the clients will be preserved during the account migration procedure, and typically no new paperwork will be needed, according to the announcement. The transaction is anticipated to close in the second half of 2024.

“Morningstar has a rich heritage of providing comprehensive investment insights and services to advisers and financial professionals around the globe,” Michael Kim, CEO of AssetMark, said in statement. “This relationship represents best-in-class firms strategically aligning to provide innovative solutions and high-quality service to financial advisors and their clients.”

The Morningstar Investment Management team, which has over $290 billion in assets under management and advice globally, will make a variety of model portfolios and independently managed accounts available to financial advisers who currently work with AssetMark. As a third-party strategist on the AssetMark platform, Morningstar Wealth will continue adding new investment services to its portfolio.

“AssetMark has a long track record of providing financial advisers with the service, tools, and investments they need to build a thriving practice, and we look forward to making our models accessible to more advisors,” Daniel Needham, president of Morningstar Wealth, said in a statement.

The deal marks another in a list of acquisitions for AssetMark. In 2021, the firm acquired Voyant, a provider of SaaS-based financial planning solutions. The following year, it acquired Adhesion Wealth, a provider of wealth management technology solutions to registered investment advisers, enterprises and asset managers.

AssetMark is also going through its own acquisition agreement with private equity firm GTCR announced in April. According to that deal, the wealth management platform will be privatized after being purchased by GTCR for $2.7 billion.

With this acquisition, GTCR, which has $40 billion in equity and has large stakes in the financial services, technology and health care industries, plans to take advantage of AssetMark’s platform to increase its market share. GTCR projects that the transaction will close by the fourth quarter of this year.