OpenArc Corporate Advisory has named Kevin Crain, a former senior retirement executive at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, as a strategic consultant – the latest move by the Atlanta-based RIA as it builds out leadership following its breakaway from the wirehouse.
Crain spent nearly 20 years at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in progressively senior roles across the retirement services business, culminating as head of retirement research, where his team published studies including Workplace Benefits, Participant Pulse, and Financial Life Benefits Impact.
Before that, he led the firm's institutional retirement business, which served more than 1,500 corporate clients representing roughly five million employees across 401(k), defined benefit, equity compensation, non-qualified deferred compensation, and health savings products. He departed Bank of America in August 2023.
Crain currently serves as executive director of the Institutional Retirement Income Council and as a senior advisor with McKinsey and the Milken Institute. He is also an honorary member of the Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association and sits on its public policy committee.
It's because of those credentials that Braintree, Massachusetts-based Pallas Capital Advisors tapped Crain as strategic advisor for retirement services last September, right around the time OpenArc staged its history-making breakaway with the support of Dynasty Financial Partners.
In his new role at OpenArc, Crain will focus on strategic growth, market positioning, and a research program centered on the convergence of corporate benefits, personal wealth, and family financial wellbeing.
"What OpenArc is building is not incremental. It is transformative," Crain said. "This industry has long needed a model defined by true independence, full integration, and a commitment to serving every employee, not just a subset."
Right before it mounted the largest breakaway in brokerage industry history, OpenArc reportedly oversaw approximately $129 billion in assets at Merrill Lynch. Dynastyholds a minority equity stake in the firm, with Dynasty's chief executive Shirl Penney sitting on its board, and Charles Schwab serving as a custodian.
Since then, OpenArc managing director and chief operating officer Emily Fletcher said the firm has enjoyed a robust pace of hiring as it no longer faced constraints she said were inherent in the wirehouse model.
OpenArc has transitioned more than $10 billion in individual client assets and opened over 14,000 accounts since the breakaway. Institutional assets – primarily 401(k) and stock plan business, which made up the bulk of assets it was reportedly responsible for at Merrill – are expected to take years to fully transfer.
OpenArc describes its offering as an independent advisory layer connecting retirement plans, equity compensation, deferred compensation, health savings accounts, and personal wealth – regardless of the underlying recordkeeper or administrator. The firm's technology stack is built on Dynasty Desktop and integrates platforms including eMoney, Black Diamond, Wealth.com, and Pontera.
"The intersection of benefits and wealth is where employees actually live, and it has long been underserved," said Jeff Crowell, managing partner of corporate strategy at OpenArc. "Employees do not think in silos, and their financial lives do not operate that way either."
OpenArc's announcement also underscored how AI and emerging technologies are opening up new capabilities for corporate benefit plan sponsors.
With four decades of experience, including years operating at the center of the current center, the firm said Crain "has developed a clear perspective on the future of the industry in an AI-enabled world."
"Kevin has spent his career pushing toward this vision, and his decision to join us is a powerful validation of what we are building,” Crowell said.
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