Modern Wealth Management, a registered investment advisory firm launched in early 2023 by former United Capital and Goldman Sachs executives, has acquired Beltz Ianni & Associates, a $1.2 billion RIA, and created a corporate retirement planning division. The team has dropped brokerage affiliations with LPL Financial to join the independent RIA, which now has $3 billion in total assets.
Rochester, N.Y.-based Beltz Ianni represents Modern Wealth’s sixth acquisition and was created by David Ianni and Fred Beltz in 2001 with a focus on retirement planning and asset management. The pair retired from practice about four years ago, naming a new generation of partners as part of a succession plan and maintaining ownership stakes that were ultimately exited in the acquisition deal.
Subsequently helmed by five partners, the 12-person team manages around $700 million in retirement plan assets for more than 100 small and mid-sized companies and oversees another $500 million for individual investors in Western New York. Six of those team members have joined Modern Wealth as managing directors, including Michelle Cannan, who is heading up a new ‘company retirement plan services’ division.
Seven members of the team are focused solely on the corporate retirement plan business, including three working as third-party plan administrators, and are providing the foundation for the new business line.
“We have a lot of synergies between both sides of the business, but we feel like specialization is really important,” Cannan told WealthManagement.com. “In order to stay on top of industry trends and new legislation, it’s important for our retirement plan services team members to focus on that part of the industry.”
The deal closed March 1. The incoming team has adopted Modern Wealth branding and is continuing to serve existing clients as a 6-month integration process is underway—as well as new clients. Cannan’s team received its first internal referral on the second day, she noted.
After expanding in-house tax capabilities in the fall, Modern Wealth is focused on building those out alongside the firm’s existing private wealth management and new 401(k) businesses.
“We're going to continue to build up talent and capacity in financial planning and tax planning, management and compliance work—actually signing 1040s for clients—as well as working very closely with the Beltz Ianni team, Michelle specifically, around corporate retirement plan build-up,” said Modern Wealth President Jason Gordo. “So, planners, CPAs and corporate retirement plan talent are what we're looking for. We're finding a tremendous amount of opportunity in the marketplace. This is number six in about a 10-month stretch. We have several more that we'll be announcing very soon, and I think you'll see talent in all those areas.”
The firm is also looking to expand in key geographical locations, including Texas, Florida and California.
“We are definitely building a national firm,” Gordo said. “I think once we have 20-25 offices, and that we have offices in all the major pools of population, then we’ll start to feel like we have a national presence.”
With six acquisitions now under its belt, Modern Wealth comprises 10 locations, including its national hub office in the greater Kansas City area and a corporate headquarters in Monterey, Calif. The latest addition brings the firm to 77 employees and $3 billion in client assets.
According to Gordo, all acquisitions to date have transitioned 100% of assets managed when the deals were announced—apart from one that decided not to invite all clients to move over.