Curian Capital advisors and employees are beginning to migrate to other turnkey asset management platforms as Curian starts its shutdown process, representatives of several firms including Assetmark and EQIS Capital say.
Announcements of new hires for former Curian employees and movement of advisors to other platforms has been coming out piecemeal since the announcement in July that Curian Capital was simply closing its doors as of next spring.
The move was highly unusual, according to other TAMP executives, who note that businesses are usually sold or merged rather than just closed.
Prudential Plc, the United Kingdom’s biggest insurer by market value, announced in July it would wind down the Curian Capital asset management operation in the United States. Curian had about $12 billion in assets under management at the end of last year and 304 employees, according to the SEC.
“When Curian launched 12 years ago, the competitive landscape and market trends favorably supported the business,” Mark Mandich, interim president and chief executive officer of Curian, said when the decision was announced. “Given the industry-wide changes in technology, product offerings and market size, Curian has determined that it is no longer commercially positioned to provide clients high value investment programs over the long term.”
In the wake of the announcement, several firms spoke up to say they were putting out the red carpet for Curian employees and for advisors who used the Curian platform for services and money management.
AssetMark Inc., based in Concord, Calif., has gained about $2 billion in assets through approximately 500 advisors who formerly used Curian, says Michael Kim, executive vice president of sales and national consulting, and more is in the pipeline. AssetMark serves approximately 6,000 advisors with $29 billion in assets.
“Our belief is this is an opportunity to help advisors who were put in a difficult position,” Kim says. “We have scale of operations to support an influx of new advisors. AssetMark does the paperwork and provides other services to help advisors make the transition.”
AssetMark announced in October it was acquiring Aris Corporation of America based in State College, Pa., which served 600 advisors. Earlier in the year it acquired the TAMP assets of Clark Capital Management Group in Philadelphia, which served 670 advisors.