Empower, Ascensus Acquire Recordkeeping Business of Truist

Truist Financial’s 401(k) business has been acquired.

Its institutional 401(k) investment advisory services business was sold to OneDigital Investment Advisors in a transaction that closed December 31. Truist has signed definitive agreements to sell its institutional 401(k) recordkeeping businesses to Ascensus and Empower Retirement in transactions scheduled to close in the first quarter of 2021.

Ascensus will acquire the heritage BB&T bundled recordkeeping retirement business from Truist Bank. Ascensus will now serve as the recordkeeper for the heritage BB&T plans, as well as the plans for which it currently serves as outsourced recordkeeper. The Truist business acquired by Ascensus covers more than 1,200 plans, with approximately 125,000 participants and $5 billion in assets.

The transaction will increase Ascensus’ retirement plan count to more than 115,000, its participant base to more than 3.4 million and its retirement plan assets under administration to more than $192 billion. Ascensus was ranked No. 5 by 401(k)s with less than $10 million in assets in PLANSPONSOR’s 2020 Recordkeeping Survey.

Ascensus explains that it has partnered with Truist for the past 12 years as the outsourced administrator for a segment of its retirement business. The long-standing relationship led Truist to select Ascensus to service both the current Ascensus-administered plans as well as the legacy plans that were previously administered in-house.

Empower will 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. Empower was ranked No. 2 by total 401(k) assets in PLANSPONSOR’s 2020 Recordkeeping Survey.

Empower also has a long-standing relationship with Truist, currently providing recordkeeping services through its Empower Institutional unit. The company says for this reason, the transition is expected to be seamless and will not require conversions.

OneDigital Investment Advisors will acquire the investment advisory business for approximately 1,200 plans, representing $10 billion in plan assets. Empower says OneDigital will serve as the adviser to a majority of the plans that Empower will administer.