CAPTRUST Becomes Nation's First $400 Billion RIA, Buying Plante Moran’s $6.27B 401(k) Business

CAPTRUST Financial Advisors today announced that it has acquired the retirement plan advisory practice of Plante Moran Financial Advisors (PMFA), one of the nation's largest independent registered investment advisors, with $6.27 billion in institutional assets.

The deal pushed CAPTRUST’s assets under advisement to more than $400 billion, the release said. It also noted that PMFA is the 42nd team to join the Raleigh, N.C.-based firm since 2006 and the fourth this year.

PMFA team is led by partners Dori Drayton and Susan Shoemaker, who will join CAPTRUST as senior vice presidents. They will be joined by 11 additional team members. Based in Grand Rapids and Southfield, Mich., the firm advises on approximately 200 institutional clients and 240 retirement plans.

Drayton said it was clear from the beginning that CAPTRUST was the ideal partner to take them into the next chapter. “Our clients will immediately be able to tap into CAPTRUST’s participant advice capabilities, a deep research team, and world-class customer support technology. We look forward to introducing our plan sponsor clients to our new colleagues at CAPTRUST,” she said in a statement.

“CAPTRUST shares our core belief that we must first and foremost act as a fiduciary and hold on equal footing the needs of our clients, colleagues and communities,” added Shoemaker.

Rick Shoff, managing director of CAPTRUST’s Advisor Group, said Drayton and Shoemaker “have built a phenomenal team; they made us better immediately and we believe they will benefit from the significant scale we have built in the retirement business at CAPTRUST.”

Plante Moran, the parent company of Plante Moran Financial Advisors and one of the nation’s largest certified public accounting, tax, wealth management and consulting firms, will retain its broader wealth management clients providing investment consulting, financial planning, trust, insurance consulting, estate planning, business succession, and tax planning services, the release noted.

Founded in 1997, the Raleigh, N.C.-based CAPTRUST has more than 700 employees nationwide and servicesmore than $400 billion in client assets under advisement, most of it in the qualified plan market. It has clients in all 50 states and provides investment advisory, asset management, and planning services to thousands of affluent private clients and institutional investors such as retirement plan fiduciaries, endowments, foundations, and religious entities.