Under mentorship from Sage View Advisory Group, a Newport Beach, California-based retirement-focused RIA backed by private equity firm Equiline Capital Partners with $179 billion in total assets, Jim Dario, former head of product management and strategy at TD Ameritrade Institutional has been tapped. as its new head of wealth management.
Dario was removed from his role at TDAI in October 2020 in the wake of the acquisition of Patron by Charles Schwab. After working with RIA for nearly 25 years, Dario said he wants to join one himself.
“I have worked with several RIAs on my experience with Fidelity & Pershing and TD Ameritrade, so I have had the opportunity to see how many companies have been successful,” Dario said in an interview. WealthManagement.com,
SageView was founded in 1989 and offers advice on 401(k), 403(b), 457 and defined benefit and deferred compensation plans. The firm works with 1,300 plan sponsors and has approximately $175 billion in assets in the retirement planning business, but the firm has bigger plans to expand its $4 billion wealth management business.
“SageView has built these trusted relationships with retirement plan sponsors,” Dario said. “Exactly how this funding got started in the business, the plan sponsors were asking people to work with their participants and really make it a profit for their participants.”
Randy Long, founder and managing head of SageView, said the firm sees a huge opportunity to bring wealth management services to the more than 1.5 million participants in its retirement plans.
Dario will focus those organic growth efforts.
In June, the firm brought on Jeremy Holly, former senior vice president of corporate development and advisory financial solutions at LPL Financial, as its new chief development and integration officer. Holly, who offered advisory M&A to LPL, led SageView’s M&A efforts as the firm accelerates acquisitions in the retail wealth management space.
Late last year, the firm acquired Michigan-based Bloomfield Hills Financial, a wealth management firm with $1.8 billion in AUM. Earlier this year, SageView acquired Minnesota-based RIA Channel Financial for $3.1 billion in AUA. This week, it closed on its acquisition of Capital One’s wealth management business, which represents $900 million in AUM.
A key part of the strategy, Long says, is recruiting wealth managers to SageView’s more than 30 retirement planning offices nationwide to bring a more personalized approach to clients.
He added that the multi-custodial platform is important to attract new advisors. While the firm is currently with Fidelity and Schwab, it is currently considering other custody relationships.
“We want to keep wealth management closer to our larger population of 401(k) and 403(b) participants, and at the same time, as we are recruiting advisors, we want to have the flexibility of a multi-custodial approach,” said Dario.
Dario plans to build a platform of services similar to TD Ameritrade. He hopes to expand some product and service offerings. For example, in addition to what SageView already does around retirement income planning, they will likely expand into philanthropic planning. He also sees an opportunity to bring RIA’s institutional investment management capability down to the individual investor and the affluent at large.
Last year, New York-based private equity firm Equiline Capital Management made a strategic investment in SageView, a move that could boost RIA’s inorganic growth strategy. The transaction allowed SageView to participate in its ownership of advisors and employees, with more than 100 people now holding equity in the firm.
