Retirement Industry People Moves

Art by Subin Yang

Crossroads Financial Services Joins LPL RIA Platform

Matt Meyers Sr. and Matthew Meyers Jr. of Crossroads Financial Services have joined LPL Financial’s broker-dealer and corporate registered investment adviser (RIA) platforms, leveraging LPL as custodian.  

They have aligned with The Financial Services Network, an existing LPL large enterprise. The Meyers team reported having served approximately $300 million in brokerage, advisory and retirement plan assets. They join from Voya Financial Advisors.

With support from two office staff members, the Austin, Texas-based wealth management practice specializes in financial planning for teachers and college educators. “We are very familiar with Texas higher education retirement plans and we love helping teachers plan for their well-deserved retirement. We are passionate about the work we do to help our clients understand complex financial matters so they can make more informed choices about their financial futures,” says Matt Meyers Sr.

“We are very excited to partner with the Meyers as they begin their new journey with The Network and LPL,” says Daxs Stadjuhar, managing partner with The Financial Services Network. “It is a privilege to support their practice—a father and son team that provides investment advice and consulting services to the Austin community, as well as expertise with helping teachers navigate their 403(b) plan options. We look forward to helping them elevate their business through the enhanced services offered at The Network and LPL Financial.” 

Alliance Acquires Recordkeeping and HR Consultant

Alliance Pension Consultants, LLC (Alliance) has acquired Reed-Ramsey, Inc., a recordkeeping, actuarial, compliance and human resources consultant.

Robert Reed, president, and Reed-Ramsey’s team of administrators will all be joining the Alliance professional staff. Jeff Feld, a principal at Alliance notes that “Rob and his staff have the same ‘client-first’ mentality that is such an important component of the Alliance culture.”

Theresa Piotrowski, Principal at Alliance, states, “we feel that this is a great combination of expertise and business philosophy. Both companies have been tremendously successful in creating custom solutions that best meet their client’s needs. Reed-Ramsey, like us, has built their business on expert consultation and world class service while working closely with the retirement adviser community. By continuing to keep plan design and investment advice separate, we can stay focused on helping clients design complete retirement plan solutions and solve very complex benefit plan situations.”

Alliance Principal Jeff Van Wagner notes that “both firms have a long history of consultative and creative solutions for retirement plans, and we are excited to pool together our collective resources and expertise. This combination provides a fantastic opportunity to greatly enhance the actuarial and administrative offerings of Reed-Ramsey and Alliance supported by a deeper and stronger team.”

Resources Investment Advisors Adds MPRA to List of Acquisitions

Resources Investment Advisors has acquired Montgomery Retirement Plan Advisors headquartered in Tampa, Florida. This acquisition comes after OneDigital acquired Resources Investment Advisors and 17 other advisory practices across the U.S. to expand into the retirement and wealth management vertical earlier in 2020.  

Founded in 2004, Montgomery Retirement Plan Advisors (MRPA) is an independent, fee-based consulting firm dedicated to employer-sponsored retirement plans. In addition to MRPA, the transaction includes sister company Fidelis Fiduciary Management, led by co-founder and president, David Montgomery. 

“Montgomery Retirement Plan Advisors is a strong addition to Resources and OneDigital. We are excited to welcome them as the latest addition to our growing national retirement and wealth division,” says Vincent Morris, president of Retirement and Wealth at OneDigital. “We’ve known Mike and his team for a long time and appreciate their company culture and their ability to offer 3(38) investment fiduciary services in support of any adviser handling retirement plans. I look forward to working closely with them to advance our growing retirement and wealth division and offering strategic business consulting to employers.” 

“We are excited to join Resources and the OneDigital family and look forward to leveraging national resources, expertise and collaborating with many of the industry’s leading retirement plan advisers already on board,” adds W. Michael Montgomery, managing principal at Montgomery Retirement Plan Advisors. “The scale of the organization and access to new technology will allow us to serve our clients now better than ever.”

J.P. Morgan Asset Management Names Institutional Portfolio Strategy Head

J.P. Morgan Asset Management has appointed Jared Gross to the newly created role of head of Institutional Portfolio Strategy, based in New York. 

Gross will work closely with the firm’s product teams and institutional client advisers in bringing together J.P. Morgan Asset Management’s insights and solutions to deliver portfolio advice to clients, including corporate and public pensions, endowments, foundations, and health care institutions. He will report to Keith Cahill, head of North America Institutional.

Gross has 25 years of financial services experience. He joins J.P. Morgan Asset Management following more than a decade at Pacific Investment Management Company (PIMCO) where he was most recently head of Institutional Business Development. 

Prior to this, he held roles at Lehman Brothers as co-head of Pension Strategy and vice president in the Pension Solutions Group at Goldman Sachs. Gross also previously held positions as special adviser on investment policy at the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) and as senior adviser for financial markets and domestic finance at the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

“Our clients are looking to us now more than ever to support them through volatile markets, and Jared will play a key role in bringing together our deep market insights and broad investment capabilities to help build stronger portfolios,” says Cahill. “Jared’s unique experience advising the institutional investment community across both private and public sectors makes him the ideal fit for the newly created head of Institutional Portfolio Strategy position as we look to bring our full suite of investment solutions to clients.”