OneDigital continues acquisition tear with purchase of $6B plan adviser

OneDigital has purchased Rochester, New York-based Westminster Consulting, the latest acquisition the insurance broker has made in its recent foray into the retirement plan business.

The deal, which was announced Thursday, will add about $6 billion in assets across 71 retirement plans to Atlanta-based OneDigital Investment Advisors’ business.

Adding Westminster “will support OneDigital’s broader retirement and wealth division with streamlining fiduciary and investment consulting to defined-contribution and defined-benefit plans,” the company stated in its announcement.

Since OneDigital scooped up $45 billion RIA Resources and some of its affiliates more than a year ago, catapulting itself into the retirement plan market, it has been buying up firms to further support that area. And it has been doing so at a time when valuations appear to be at an all-time high and consolidation has been rampant in the retirement plan adviser world.

The Resources deal marked “the first inning in an aggressive expansion” for OneDigital, company co-founder Mike Sullivan said at the time.

Last year, majority ownership in OneDigital changed when New York-based New Mountain Capital sold its share to private-equity firm Onex.

That does not appear to have altered the company’s plans for expansion.

At the end of last year, OneDigital picked up Truist Financial Corp.’s investment advisory relationships, representing 1,200 retirement plans and about $10 billion in assets under advisement. That was among the last of the 37 deals OneDigital made in 2020, according to the company.

In January, OneDigital announced the acquisitions of $7 billion nonqualified plan consultancy Fulcrum Partners as well as $1 billion retirement plan adviser Vertical Financial Group. A month later, the company bought Atlanta Retirement Partners, which at the time had 130 retirement plan clients representing about $1.3 billion in assets.

Westminster’s New York staff in Rochester, Syracuse and Great River, as well as those in Princeton, New Jersey, will join OneDigital’s RIA, according to the announcement. Westminster specializes in giving fiduciary advice, counsel and investment analysis to boards of directors, trustees and investment committees.

OneDigital has more than 100 offices in the U.S. and about 5,000 retirement plan clients, representing about 900,000 participants, according to figures provided by the company.

Merger-and-acquisition consultancy Wise Rhino Group advised Westminster on the deal.