GRP Expands Alliance with Six Firms

GRP Advisor Alliance has added six advisory firms representing $10 billion in retirement plan assets. The expansion follows June’s addition of four advisers on the heels of the sale of GRP, in March, to the current group of owner-advisers.

The addition of these firms raises the amount of assets to $56 billion, the number of advisers to over 200 and the total number of retirement plans served to nearly 4,000. The alliance is a group of retirement plan firms focused on empowering retirement advisers.

Two things are driving the firm’s expanding network, says Bill Chetney, chief executive of GRP Advisor Alliance. First, GRP Advisor Alliance’s partnership with Financial Finesse represents “the frontier of 401(k) focus,” Chetney tells PLANADVISER. “The best-in-class advisers will be looking at employee education and employee wellness, and this resonated with the incoming advisers.”

Then, too, “as our asset base grows, we’ll be able to use our aggregate buying power to do things such as collective trusts to drive down costs of investments for plan sponsor firms,” Chetney says, adding he expects significant further growth in advisers in the coming months.

For now, Chetney says, the firms coming aboard are people they’ve known a long time, and a few newcomers. “It’s great to have them on board,” he says.

Joining GRP Advisor Alliance are:

• Bob Goldstein, Spencer Goldstein and Heidi Sidley (StoneStreet Equity Inc., White Plains, New York)
• Mike Kane (Plan Sponsor Consultants, Atlanta)
• Steve Brace (TRUERetirement , Bellevue, Washington)
• Geoff Mettler (Jenkins Financial Group, Concord, California)
• Bill Bequette (INTRUST Retirement, Wichita, Kansas)
• Rich Sotell (The Kraematon Group, Wellesley, Massachusetts)

“I’m excited to partner with all six of these firms and share in our common vision of changing the retirement plan industry,” Chetney says. “Each of these firms represents the highest level of expertise and commitment to their clients.”

The GRP Advisor Alliance vision statement—Committed to Improving Participant Outcomes—resonates deeply with retirement plan advisers and is driving continued growth. The advisers in the alliance recognize the shift in the retirement plan industry and the deepening concern among plan sponsors to help ensure participants retire with dignity.

More information is at GRP Advisor Alliance’s website.