Plan Sponsors Have Fiduciary Duties to Follow During Adviser M&As
They should know the right questions to ask as advisory firm merger and acquisition activity continues to increase.
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Art by Scott Bakal
Advisory firm merger and acquisition (M&A) activity is on the rise without any sign of slowing down. But what are plan sponsors to do if their advisory firm is acquired, or if the firm they partner with keeps acquiring others?
Plan sponsors should first find out whether and how the services their financial adviser provides will be impacted, says George Sepsakos, an ERISA [Employee Retirement Income Security Act] attorney and principal at Groom Law Group. “The first questions that our [plan sponsor] clients typically ask is how the direct experience with the adviser is going to change, and if they need to be concerned with the effects of the relationship,” he says.