Retirement Wave Powers Deals

Members of the Silent Generation are all over 76, and the baby boomers are all at least 57.

Retirement services distributors with big pools of private equity money continue to roll up other distributors.

One driver is that this may be the last chance to attract large amounts of retirement planning business from the boomers, and a good time to get the attention of the boomers’ millennial children.

Another reason is that many financial firm owners are heading toward retirement themselves. They are looking for buyers to help them cash out.

Since mid-February, two frequent buyers — Integrity Marketing of Dallas and AmeriLife Group of Clearwater, Florida — have made a total of seven acquisitions.

Integrity Marketing

Integrity Marketing has relationships with 420,000 agents and advisors. It is helping insurers oversee $20 billion of assets under management and advisement.

The company has acquired:

The Focschini Group — a Farmington, Connecticut-based retirement planning firm and RIA that was founded in 2010.

Carothers Insurance Agency — a Las Vegas-based independent marketing organization that was founded in 1969. The agency distributes all kinds of life, health and annuity products.

Penn Global Marketing — a Town and Country, Missouri-based IMO that distributes products aimed at older adults through a network of career agents. The agents serve tens of thousands of consumers in 43 states.

J. Helbig & Co. — a Chesterfield, Missouri-based life and annuities agency that focuses on serving federal employees. It was founded in 1984. It expects to generate about $40 million in life and annuity premiums this year.

The Health Insurance Place — a Johnstown, Pennsylvania-based IMO that was founded in 1979 and now distributes life insurance, health insurance and annuities through a network of hundreds of agents.

AmeriLife

AmeriLife has relationships with about 300,000 agents and advisors and about 50 marketing organizations.

It has acquired:

Platinum Choice Healthcare — a Boca Raton, Florida-based national field marketing organization that specializes in the distribution of Medicare Advantage products. The company was founded in 2015 and has relationships with 110 agents. In 2021, the agency sold about 30,000 Medicare Advantage plan policies.

ORCA Life — a Louisville, Kentucky-based IMO that was founded in the late 1990s and specializes in the distribution of final expense insurance. The deal also includes an ownership stake in The Curry Group, a final expense agency and division of ORCA Life.

NFP

NFP — a New York-based insurance broker and retirement services firm — has acquired AFS Advisors, an independent registered retirement and investment advisor in Suwanee, Georgia. AFS provides retirement planning and advisory services for high-net-worth individuals and corporate plan sponsors.

Verisk

Verisk — a data analytics firm based in Jersey City, New Jersey — has acquired Infutor from Norwest Venture Partners.

Infutor is a 19-year-old Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois-based company that provides identity resolution and consumer intelligence data.

Marketers can use the data to analyze the behavior of website users.

Alliances

CUNA Mutual has agreed to offer digital estate planning services from OneDigitalTrust to its 2 million funeral insurance and final expense arrangement customers.

MoreCare — a Chicago-based Medicare Advantage plan — has agreed to offer caregiver support services from Carallel to people who are providing informal care for MoreCare plan members who have special needs.

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