SageView Advisory Group, a Newport Beach, Calif.–based retirement-focused RIA with $179 billion in total assets under advisement backed by private equity firm Aquiline Capital Partners, has tapped Jim Dario, former head of product management and strategy at TD Ameritrade Institutional, as its new head of wealth management.
Dario was laid off from his role at TDAI in October 2020 in the wake of Charles Schwab’s acquisition of the custodian. After about 25 years working with RIAs, Dario said he wanted to join one himself.
“I’ve worked with many RIAs over my experience with Fidelity and Pershing and TD Ameritrade, so I’ve had an opportunity to see how many firms have been successful,” Dario said in an interview with WealthManagement.com.
SageView was founded in 1989 and advises on 401(k), 403(b), 457, and defined benefit and deferred compensation plans. The firm works with 1,300 plan sponsors and has some $175 billion in assets in the retirement plan business, but the firm has big plans to expand its $4 billion wealth management business.
“SageView has built these trusted relationships with retirement plan sponsors,” Dario said. “Really how it started in the wealth business is those plan sponsors were asking the folks at SageView to work with their participants and really make it a benefit for their participants.”
Randy Long, SageView founder and managing principal, said the firm sees a large opportunity to bring wealth management services to the more than 1.5 million participants across the retirement plans it serves.
Dario will focus on those organic growth efforts.
In June, the firm brought on Jeremy Holly, former senior vice president of corporate development and advisor financial solutions at LPL Financial, as its new chief development and integration officer. Holly, who built out LPL’s advisor M&A offering, leads SageView’s M&A efforts, as the firm ramps up acquisitions in the retail wealth management space.
At the end of last year, the firm acquired Michigan-based Bloomfield Hills Financial, a wealth management firm with $1.8 billion in AUM. Earlier this year, SageView acquired Channel Financial, a Minnesota-based RIA with $3.1 billion in AUA. This week, it closed on its acquisition of Capital One’s wealth management business, representing $900 million in AUM.
A major part of the strategy, Long said, is to recruit wealth managers to SageView’s over 30 retirement plan offices around the country to bring a more personalized approach to clients.
A multicustodial platform is key to attracting new advisors, he added. While the firm currently custodies with Fidelity and Schwab, it is considering other custodial relationships.
“We’re looking to put wealth management close to our large populations of 401(k) and 403(b) participants, and with that, as we’re recruiting advisors, we’re going to want to have the flexibility of a multicustodial approach,” Dario said.
Dario plans to build out a platform of services, similar to the way he did at TD Ameritrade. He expects to expand some of the product and service offerings. For instance, in addition to what SageView already does around retirement income planning, it will likely expand into philanthropic planning. He also sees an opportunity to bring the RIA’s institutional investment management competence downstream to individual investors and the mass affluent.
Last year, New York–based private equity firm Aquiline Capital Management made a strategic investment in SageView, a move that could fuel the RIA’s inorganic growth strategy. The transaction also allowed SageView to have advisors and employees take part in its ownership, with over 100 people now holding equity in the firm.