WhartonHill Joins Hub’s Growing Retirement Practice

Hub International has acquired certain assets of WhartonHill Retirement Services, Strategic Planning Resources, and Karen McCloskey—collectively doing business as WhartonHill Advisors.

This is the fourth announcement Hub has made in the last week regarding acquisitions of firms tied to Global Retirement Partners (GRP) and LPL Financial, and sources suggest it will not be the last. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

WhartonHill Advisors is headquartered in Ft. Washington, Pennsylvania, and focuses on institutional investment consulting and private wealth services. The firm also brings to the table retirement plan expertise, investment fiduciary services and specialized executive benefit services. WhartonHill Advisors’ assets under advisement, as of June 30, are in excess of $3 billion.

Under the terms of the transaction, WhartonHill Advisors principals Andrew DeGroat, John Wenz and Karen McCloskey join Hub’s growing group of retirement plan and wealth management advisers. Their firm has been recognized multiple times in the PLANADVISER Top 100 Retirement Plan Advisers listing. McCloskey is also a member of the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) and is considered a leading advocate for women business owners and entrepreneurs.

In announcing the deal, the WhartonHill principals say they are looking forward to taking advantage of Hub International’s significant financial services and benefits infrastructure. But they emphasize they are also excited about the continuing their partnership with both Global Retirement Partners and LPL Financial. “[We] look forward to expanding that relationship going forward,” DeGroat said.

DeGroat will join Hub Northeast, working with Reich and collaborating heavily with Paul Collins, president and CEO of Hub Northeast.

Hub’s most recently announced acquisitions in this space include Washington Financial, StoneStreet, and EPIC Retirement Services. Back in January, Hub announced its first retirement plan advisory shop acquisition in Sheridan Road Financial. The leaders of Sheridan Road offered an inside view of the transaction at the 2019 PLANADVISER National Conference, where they emphasized “the convergence of health and wealth.”

“[Health and wealth consumerism] is a lot different today than it was 10 years ago,” he explained. “We asked ourselves, ‘Who has the data, the financial wellness capabilities and the capital to grow? Who could offer the financial wellness endgame?’ We discovered that Hub, a benefits broker, was looking at the same things we were and was speaking a lot of the same language.”