Retirement Industry People Moves

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Mercer Advisors Acquires 3 Wealth Management Firms

Mercer Global Advisors Inc. has acquired Berkson Asset Management Inc., and Steven M. Berkson, CPA, a Professional Corporation. Berkson is a wealth management firm headquartered in Woodland Hills, California, and provides tax, accounting and other financial services. The company serves approximately 100 clients with assets under management of approximately $185 million. Berkson was founded in 1995 by Steven Berkson.

Mercer also acquired Fure Financial Corp. Fure Financial is a wealth management firm headquartered in Bloomington, Minnesota, serving approximately 300 clients with assets under management of approximately $260 million. Fure Financial was founded in 1985 by Johannes C. Fure, president, senior wealth adviser and chief investment officer.

Fure Financial is an independent registered investment adviser

The third acquisition is Bivin and Associates Inc. Bivin is a wealth management firm headquartered in Ponca City Oklahoma, with assets under management of approximately $130 million. Bivin was founded in 1994 by William Stan Bivin, the firm’s president.

The entire team of each acquired firm will join Mercer Advisors.

SageView Advisory Group Acquires Retirement and Wealth Management Firm kPlans

SageView Advisory Group has acquired kPlans Investment Services Inc. of Valencia, California. kPlans, which has $825 million in assets under advisement, offers retirement plan consulting with a focus on defined benefit and cash balance plans, as well as a growing wealth practice. kPlans is the fifth firm to join SageView since July 2021. Steve Sansone, who founded kPlans in 2005, will become a managing director at SageView.

Wise Rhino Group served kPlans as adviser on the transaction. 

Prudential Hires Global Head of Digital Products

Utkarsh Patel will join Prudential Financial Inc. as global head of digital products. Patel will be responsible for transforming customer, client and adviser digital experiences to drive critical business outcomes.

Patel brings expertise in digital transformation across asset management, banking, health care and wealth management, having managed business transformations for B2B and B2C companies such as First Abu Dhabi Bank, BBVA, Humana, Citigroup and American Express. He joins the company from Wealth Enhancement Group, where he served as chief marketing and digital officer.

Patel will report to Prudential’s chief customer officer, Hema Widhani, and join her customer and digital senior leadership team.

Patel graduated from Drexel University with a bachelor’s degree in marketing and finance.

Creative Planning Acquires Rosen Capital Management

Rosen Capital Management has joined Creative Planning LLC. Rosen Capital Management has $114 million in assets under management and brings two new employees into the Creative Planning fold, including the firm’s CEO, Glenn Rosen.

Rosen Capital Management is a third-generation family business that began in 1948 as a life and health insurance agency, ultimately transitioning into a full-fledged financial planning and money management firm. It specializes in complete financial planning to include tax minimization strategies, wealth management, insurance needs and estate planning. 

With this acquisition, the second in two weeks, Creative Planning manages or advises on over $225 billion in assets across all 50 states and 65 countries with, the company says, continued plans for growth throughout 2022.

Incap Group Inc. in Baltimore served as financial adviser to Rosen Capital Management on the transaction.

OneDigital Expands Wealth Management Capabilities

OneDigital Investment Advisors, an SEC-registered investment adviser and wholly owned subsidiary of OneDigital, announced it has acquired TimeScale Financial, a registered investment adviser in Danvers, Massachusetts. This acquisition marks OneDigital’s fifth transaction in a five-month period of strategically growing its wealth management offering.

TimeScale currently manages approximately $3 billion in assets across wealth management and retirement plan advising.

The company’s full 19-employee team will join OneDigital, led by James Horrocks as retirement and wealth senior vice president; Kate Asack as operations vice president; and Neil Tremblay as retirement vice president.

Following the completion of the TimeScale acquisition, OneDigital Investment Advisors will be responsible for advising approximately $106.7 billion in total assets under advisement, representing over 1 million participants and 41,000 individual accounts. Strategic partnerships have led to significant growth for the firm, fueling its investments in technology solutions and other resources that deliver efficiencies for broker partners and the customers they serve. 

DeVoe & Co. represented TimeScale Financial in the transaction.