Alera Group Wealth Services, a division of Deerfield, Ill.-based Alera Group, an independent insurance and wealth services firm, has made its first acquisition, acquiring Wharton Business Group (WBG), a registered investment advisor in Malvern, Pa., managing more than $3.5 billion in client assets.
“Wharton Business Group has more than 30 years of experience serving clients and is an exciting addition to our national wealth services platform,” Alan Levitz, CEO of Alera Group, said in a news release announcing the deal. “The team shares our fierce commitment to collaboration, and we look forward to leveraging its expertise to bolster our existing wealth management services and national presence.”
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Founded in 1992, WBG specializes in custom investment advisory and business continuity services, including leadership succession and estate planning, which are typically performed in conjunction with other key advisors of business owner clients, the company said. WBG’s investment services include portfolio evaluation, investment policy development, manager selection, security selection, continuous active management, portfolio rebalancing and investment fee analysis.
“For more than three decades, we’ve provided clients with unbiased investment management and business succession advice,” B.J. Webster, managing director and founding partner of Wharton Business Group, said in the news release. “Now as part of Alera Group, we’ll continue providing these services, but can also offer to connect clients with a network of experts and advisors in other planning areas whose interests are aligned with theirs.”
Webster said in an email that he and his partners, ages 55, 59 and 62, decided to sell the practice to Alera in order to ensure its legacy.
“We have been getting questions from our clients about what happens if we have health problems,” he said. “The pandemic really prompted this thinking from clients as they have looked at their own situations as business owners. We want to be part of what Alera is building in wealth services.”
Webster said that he and his partners had worked for industry giants as Schwab, BlackRock and Vanguard, and that the newly merged firm would be able to leverage that experience to grow Alera’s wealth management division.
“We decided we would rather help build someone else’s practice than join someone else’s platform,” Webster said. “So many RIA buyers simply want to scale and use one-size-fits-all investment solutions. That doesn’t fit with our client base of business owners and ultra-high-net-worth families.”
Webster said that as part of their due diligence process, he and his partners worked with DeVoe & Co. last year to perform an analysis of their independent practice. In the fall, DeVoe & Co. helped WBG develop a profile and confidential information memorandum (CIM), and began marketing the business to potential buyers.