Toronto-based Bank of Montreal (BMO) has sold its U.S. retirement services business to OneAmerica Financial Partners Inc., a provider of retirement planning, insurance and employee benefit products and services based in Indianapolis. Terms of the agreement have not been disclosed.
The sale of Milwaukee-based BMO Retirement Services, a division of BMO Global Asset Management (BMO GAM) that provides pension/retirement plans for corporations and small businesses, is part of BMO GAM’s strategy to focus on the asset-management business, notes Barry McInerney, co-CEO of BMO GAM, in a statement.
The acquisition will increase OneAmerica’s assets under administration (AUA) by approximately $26 billion, bringing the firm’s total AUA to more than $70 billion, says Scott Davison, president and CEO of OneAmerica, in a statement.
The transaction is expected to close during the third quarter of this year. At that time, the business will adopt the name OneAmerica Retirement Services LLC. OneAmerica has announced that it 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.
As part of the deal, BMO (TSX: BMO) will manage a portion of the investments in the plans moving to OneAmerica as well as acting as the directed trustee and custodian for those plans, McInerney adds in the statement.
“BMO is committed to delivering value to our clients, and we’re very pleased that we found a buyer such as OneAmerica that combines our focus on relationships and high-touch service values,” says McInerney. “BMO believes that OneAmerica will be an excellent cultural and service-model fit for our employees and clients.”