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OneAmerica Acquires BMO Retirement

OneAmerica has purchased the U.S. retirement division of Bank of Montreal (BMO), positioning itself to be a major player in the advisor sold DC market.

Following its recent acquisitions of the retirement division of City National as well as McCready and Keene, OneAmerica will have $70 billion of DC AUM when the BMO sale closes (anticipated in the third quarter). At that time, the business will adopt the name OneAmerica Retirement Services LLC.

OneAmerica will continue business operations from BMO Retirement Services’ current locations, and most clients will continue to work with their current service teams. BMO Retirement Services employees covered by the agreement will become OneAmerica employees. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

OneAmerica has acquired an entrenched and well-regarded mid-market provider. BMO’s U.S. retirement services business has more than 200 professionals with approximately 830 plans, while the retirement services businesses of OneAmerica serve more than 11,000 plans and have more than $30 billion in retirement assets under administration, according to an announcement.

Like Transamerica, MassMutual, Empower-Retirement and John Hancock, OneAmerica realizes that to be a long-term survivor in the advisor sold DC market, you need to be able to sell to all types of advisors — from the many emerging advisors with just a few plans serving smaller businesses, all the way up to elite advisors with more than $250 million of DC AUM. Having a foundation and sales engine in the small DC market is critical, but so is the ability to service plans and advisors as they mature. With the BMO acquisition, OneAmerica has made a loud and bold statement — and leaves those record keepers without a strong multi-market strategy scrambling.

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