Empower Retirement and Truist Bank today announced they have entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the heritage SunTrust 401(k) recordkeeping business, which includes approximately 300 retirement plans consisting of more than 73,000 plan participants and $5 billion in plan assets.
The terms of the transaction, which is expected to close during the first quarter, were not disclosed.
According to the announcement, Empower has been providing recordkeeping services for Truist through its private-label retirement plan unit, Empower Institutional, for more than 20 years, and because of this long-standing relationship, the transition is expected to be seamless and will not require conversions.
Also, as part of the Empower acquisition of the heritage SunTrust 401(k) plan recordkeeping business, Resources Investment Advisors LLC, which does business as OneDigital Investment Advisors, will serve as the advisor to most of the plans that Empower will administer, the announcement said.
“With this transaction, we will continue to expand our capabilities, enhance our financial wellness and advice offerings, and accelerate our value creation for all our stakeholders,” Empower Retirement president and CEO Edmund F. Murphy III said in a statement.
The transaction is the latest expansion through acquisitions for Empower in the past months. On Monday, it announced the completion of the acquisition of the MassMutual retirement plan business, which increased its participant base to more than 12 million and retirement services recordkeeping assets to about $884 billion administered in about 67,000 workplace savings plans.
In August, the company completed its acquisition of Personal Capital, a registered investment adviser and wealth manager. In that deal, power received up to $1 billion in enterprise value, composed of $825 million on closing and up to $175 million for planned growth. And in September, Empower acquired Fifth Third Bank, National Association’s retirement plans, providing recordkeeping and administrative services for 476 retirement plans.
Headquartered in Greenwood Village, Colo., Empower administers $710 billion in assets on behalf of 9.4 million American workers and retirees through workplace savings plans as of Sept. 30, 2020.