Pensionmark Financial Group appointed Jonathan Curley to the newly created role of global head of compliance as it ramps up its acquisition activity, the firm announced Monday.

Curley will be responsible for managing global strategies across all Pensionmark financial services companies, Jennifer Tanck, executive vice president and chief compliance officer at Pensionmark, wrote in an email.

“As Pensionmark expends its footprint through acquisitions, we wanted to bring someone in who would be responsible for the financial services vertical in its entirety, including Pensionmark and other firms that we acquire which may initially be run independent of Pensionmark,” Tanck explains. 

Insurance brokerage World Insurance Associates, based in Iselin, New Jersey, acquired Pensionmark in 2022. Pensionmark CEO Troy Hammond recently told PLANADVISER the firm is on track to move from its current split of 80% retirement plan advisers and 20% wealth managers to an even 50/50 makeup via acquisitions by July.

Curley’s extensive experience with mergers and acquisitions and compliance made him an “ideal” fit for the new role, Tanck says. His duties will include overseeing global compliance strategy across all the financial services firms under the World Insurance Associates umbrella as well as being as the firm’s primary regulatory liaison with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, according to Tanck.

Curley’s new role at Pensionmark grew from the need to have central oversight over World Insurance Associates’ different financial services firms, both those acquired before and after the Pensionmark acquisition in May 2022, says Tanck. 

The role was designed to bring additional “intellectual capital” for compliance due diligence on potential acquisition targets, Tanck explains. 

Curley will report to Pensionmark CEO Hammond, Tanck says.

“Jon’s expertise will prove invaluable to our growth and compliance initiatives for both our existing and new partners,” Hammond stated in the press release.

Curley had been a senior adviser at boutique investment bank ButcherJoseph & Co. Before that, he was the CEO and founder of Laffer Tengler Investments, a registered investment adviser owned by ButcherJoseph Financial Holdings, according to the press release.

The Pensionmark Financial Group network represents more than 345 financial advisers and staff across 67 locations in the United States, according to the release.