Will RIA and RPA worlds converge?
Though registered investment advisory firms could benefit from hunting for new clients at the DC plans they manage, will they begin to acquire retirement plan adviser firms?
May 12, 2021 3 MINS
Most retirement plan advisers started in the wealth business, many from wirehouses. So you would think that cross-selling wealth to their retirement plan participants would come naturally to most RPAs. Yet few larger firms other than Captrust and a handful of regional groups like Greenspring Advisors have been successful.
With the RIA valuations and M&A market even frothier than the hot RPA market, it seems logical that these worlds will converge. But there are many obstacles and challenges that investors in RPA aggregators expect their acquired firms to overcome based on the prices being paid.