MassMutual to buy cash management platform Flourish

MassMutual has inked a deal with broker-dealer Stone Ridge Holdings Group to acquire its subsidiary fintech platform Flourish, the companies announced Monday. 

Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company acquired Flourish after the fintech garnered popularity in the advisory space through its cash management tool called Flourish Cash. The product gives independent advisers the ability to set up cash management accounts for clients so they can meet budgeting goals. 

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Technology giant Envestnet Tamarac partnered with Flourish Cash in September via an integration that features cash management tools front and center for more than 100,000 independent advisers using Envestnet. 

The acquisition is slated to close during the first quarter of 2021, pending regulatory approvals. Once the acquisition closes, MassMutual plans to retain the company's employees and the fintech will continue to serve RIAs, operating independently from MassMutual’s existing insurance and wealth management business.

Approximately 30 employees will join MassMutual as part of the transaction.

The Flourish team will be tasked with expanding MassMutual’s existing product line up and strengthening the company’s ability to deliver digital financial planning, which addresses the 2020 industry shift toward technology-enabled financial planning as an adviser’s greatest value proposition. 

Cash management became ones of the hottest trends in financial technology last year as top advisers like Carson Wealth and Personal Capital — and even the free-trading app Robinhood — all added the features to attract more investing clients to their platforms.

The Flourish Cash tool offers competitive interest rates and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. insurance to advisers’ clients with no minimums and unlimited transfers, according to fintech’s website.

Flourish Cash is white-labeled, so RIAs can feature their logo across their website and materials, and can set up standing instructions to help clients transfer funds between clients’ portfolios and Flourish Cash accounts. 

Moreover, advisers can use the cash management offering to help win prospects and possibly generate referrals. To date, Flourish services more than 350 RIAs representing more than $600 billion in assets under management, according to the announcement. 

The acquisition announcement comes on the heels of Empower Retirement’s acquisition of MassMutual’s retirement plan business, announced in September.