HUB International Acquires Alpha Pension Group

HUB International has acquired Alpha Pension Group Inc., a retirement plan consulting firm based in Boston.

Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Alpha Pension Group provides investment analytics, fiduciary governance and guidance to corporations and nonprofits on retirement planning.

“The Alpha Pension Group’s depth of knowledge and the strong relationships they have been able to develop with their clients will benefit our clients in New England as they continue to seek more transparency and personalized retirement service offerings,” says Shawn McLaughlin, president and CEO of HUB New England. 

Rich Cawthorne, Alpha Pension Group’s president and CEO, and Mark Salamone, the firm’s chief financial officer (CFO), will formally join HUB New England.

McLaughlin says this move continues to strengthen HUB’s retirement and wealth management services, with the ongoing goal of developing more comprehensive strategies for clients. Following a string of 2020 and 2021 acquisitions, HUB’s retirement and private wealth business now manages more than $93 billion in assets.

During a recent conversation with PLANADVISER, HUB International’s Adam Sokolic spoke in no uncertain terms about his company’s ambitions for the rest of this year.

Simply put, HUB’s buying spree of established retirement plan advisory firms won’t slow down anytime soon. According to Sokolic, who is the chief operating officer (COO) for the firm’s retirement and private wealth division, several more deals are already in their late stages—this after a busy end of 2020 that saw multiple significant acquisitions of established registered investment advisers (RIAs).

“Our focus has not changed, looking at 2021,” Sokolic says. “We are focused on bringing on great talent, which is true across the HUB organization any time we are making an acquisition. We want to bring on folks who are still hungry to grow and take our business forward.”

That is a good way to summarize HUB’s vision for the retirement planning marketplace. As Sokolic puts it, HUB hopes to enable greater growth for the advisers it is bringing on board by supplying them with back-office efficiencies and extensive referral networks, in addition to other client-facing resources.