Winnipeg-based Pavilion Financial Corp., which offers institutional investment consulting in Canada and the U.S. through Pavilion Advisory Group, announced an agreement on Tuesday to purchase Minneapolis-based Jeffrey Slocum & Associates Inc., which also provides investment advice to institutions in the U.S. and Canada.
At closing, a significant number of Slocum’s senior management team, consultants and researchers will become shareholders in Pavilion and will maintain key leadership positions in the combined organization.
The transaction represents a strategic opportunity for both Pavilion and Slocum, says Daniel Friedman, Pavilion’s president and CEO, in a statement: “The combined team will have the resources and expertise to lead the industry across a wide range of areas such as health care, insurance and retirement benefit consulting. The combined resources and research-driven knowledge will allow the advisory teams to enhance their offering to both Pavilion and Slocum clients and to expand the quality advice and solutions they are seeking.”
Slocum serves a broad array of institutional clients in the U.S. and Canada, including health-care systems, endowments and foundations, retirement plans, insurance companies, religious organizations and Native American tribal communities.
Slocum’s services include enterprise risk modeling, asset allocation and liability studies, risk management, manager searches, investment policy development, performance analysis and reporting, and client education. Slocum advises on approximately US$125 billion in client assets.
Meanwhile, Pavilion’s consultants provide tailored advice, strategies and solutions for institutional clients in every aspect of the investing process. In addition, Pavilion offers specialized advisory services on alternative asset classes to institutional clients through Pavilion Alternatives Group, one of the largest, dedicated alternative advisory groups in North America.
Upon the deal’s closing, which is expected in the coming weeks subject to several conditions, Pavilion will combine the business of Slocum with its institutional investment consulting subsidiary in the U.S., Pavilion Advisory Group Inc., and the Slocum team will operate under the Pavilion name out of its current office in Minneapolis.
Jeffrey Slocum, who will be retiring from institutional consulting after a brief transition period, says in a statement that the transaction provides a defined succession plan for the business he founded in 1986: “We found Pavilion’s commitment to employee-ownership to be a very compelling feature of the transaction since it aligns consultant and client interests. Further, Pavilion’s depth of expertise, its specialized and dedicated services and its commitment to meeting or exceeding client expectations are a good fit for our clients and our team.”
Photo copyright: ltphoto/123RF