DeVoe Advises on Alera Acquisition of Wharton

Acquisition Demonstrates Continued Industry M&A Activity, Focus on High Net Worth Segment and Specialized Business Owner Niche

Alera Group Wealth Services announced its acquisition of Pennsylvania-based Wharton Business Group, an employee-owned firm with $3.5 billion in assets, primarily serving business owners and institutions.

The transaction demonstrates strong activity in the wealth management M&A space, as well as the industry’s continued focus on serving high net worth clients, which Wharton takes a step further with its specialization in business owners.

Wharton provides business continuity services such as estate planning and leadership succession specifically to serve the niche of business owners and entrepreneurs within the high net worth space.

Alera plans to leverage the acquisition to enhance its assets and geographic coverage. Tina Hohman, Alera’s Executive Vice President, Wealth Services, said, “[Wharton’s] experienced team has specialized expertise that complement our offerings and they can leverage our strengths to continue to grow both regionally and across the Alera Group platform.”

In addition to business continuity services, Wharton provides custom investment advisory services including tax efficiency, manager and security selection, continuous active management, portfolio evaluation and rebalancing and investment policy selection.

DeVoe & Company advised Wharton Business Group on this transaction, the eighth transaction of the year for DeVoe.

Speaking on the synergies of the acquisition, David DeVoe, Founder and CEO of DeVoe & Company, said, “Alera gains tremendous investment management capability and a wealth management solution for clients of its other business lines. Wharton gains a new level of resources to support their continued growth.”

In addition, this transaction shows an industry interest in providing sophisticated services that target specialized niches as Wharton provides a range of business continuity services above and beyond the typical portfolio and investment services – services specifically designed with business owners and entrepreneurs in mind, a subset of the larger high net worth space.

Michael Madden, Contributing Editor & Research Analyst at Wealth Solutions Report, can be reached at mmadden@wealthsolutionsreport.com