The deal marks $14bn Concurrent's first full acquisition since it broke away from Raymond James in 2023.
By Alec Rich
Concurrent Investment Advisors has bought out one of its long-time affiliates in the first full acquisition in the hybrid RIA’s history, Concurrent revealed on Monday.
The move brings aboard Next Retirement Solutions (Next), a San Diego-based firm overseeing $10bn in retirement plan assets. Led by managing director Paul Neuner, Next manages over 300 plans with roughly 150,000 underlying participants.
Specific financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Nate Lenz, Concurrent’s chief executive, told Citywire the deal was financed with a mix of equity and cash. With the deal, Lenz said Concurrent now oversees $16bn in AUA on the 401(k) side across its platform.
Lenz added that Next will eventually rebrand as “Concurrent Retirement,” though right now the new moniker is only being used for new retirement plans the business brings in, rather than legacy Next ones.
Initially affiliated with Wells Fargo for over two decades in its previous iteration, Neuner’s firm joined Raymond James in 2016 when it went independent. Next soon became a founding affiliate of Concurrent when the latter was launched in 2017 as an office of supervisory jurisdiction (OSJ) within Raymond James.
The seven-person team joining Concurrent largely services defined contribution for 401(k)s, with an additional mix of some defined benefit and non-qualified plans, Lenz said.
Lenz said the deal was a ‘logical’ one as Concurrent’s first full acquisition given the hybrid RIA’s deep knowledge of and history with Next.
“Being able to have that foundation of people, the critical mass of plans, I think really gave us a high degree of confidence that if we’re to turn on the growth spigots on the institutional side, start to add additional plans, that we have the capacity to be able to take those on and service those in a meaningful manner,” Lenz said.
Concurrent’s retirement apparatus is currently overseen by David Montgomery, the former director of retirement investment services with $142bn OneDigital. Montgomery joined Concurrent from OneDigital in November of 2024 as a director of retirement plan services, a move that Lenz said cleared the way for a buyout of Next.
He added that the deal will ultimately prove beneficial on both the client and advisor sides of Concurrent’s business lines.
On the one hand, Lenz said Concurrent has already begun working on new retirement plan acquisitions across various markets at the regional and national levels, including via associations with trade associations. That he said, can drive subsequent leads and opportunities for associated member firms within Concurrent.
Meanwhile, Concurrent is also making additional staff hires, including associate advisors, to prop up the retirement arm of the business working across the firm’s in-house planning desk. By working alongside Concurrent’s institutional consultants to drive new retail business, Lenz said those new advisors may eventually help solve for longer term succession concerns.
“We look as it as one,” Lenz said. “It’s an organic growth strategy for our experienced advisors in the field, but we also look at it as a great training opportunity to bring new folks into the business who can later be deployed into the field as successors for some of our existing practices.”
Earlier this year, Concurrent also launched RIA Capital Partners, an RIA minority investing arm that aims to stake firms in the $200m to $500m AUM range. Lenz said RIA Capital Partners is aiming to stake four to five firms by the end of the year.
RIA Capital Partners’ debut pair of investments were in Post Oak Wealth Partners, a $250m Houston, Texas-based RIA, along with Oliver Capital Management, a $450m Seattle-based firm.
Lenz tipped that Concurrent will also look to be more acquisitive over the next ‘six to 12 months,’ aiming to either buy firms like Next that are a ‘complimentary business line’ or other middle-and-back-office service platforms that resemble Concurrent itself.
“I do think there’s a large growth opportunity in that space,” Lenz said.
Concurrent has been backed by serial RIA investor Merchant Investment Management since 2021.
Tampa, Fla.-based Concurrent broke away from Raymond James in 2023 to establish itself as an independent back-and middle-office service platform. The firm’s core RIA currently oversees $14bn in assets under management after adding roughly $2.5bn in new assets across the first two quarters of this year.
Read the original article on Citywire.
