Why Modern Wealth Management Is Buying The $1.2 Billion Beltz Ianni & Associates Firm

By Amit Chowdhry • Mar 8, 2024

Modern Wealth Management – a registered investment advisory (RIA) firm founded to meet the evolving needs of today’s financial professionals and their clients, today announced the strategic acquisition of Rochester, New York-based Beltz Ianni & Associates, a corporate retirement planning and individual wealth management firm with over $1.2 billion in assets.

As part of the deal, Beltz Ianni dropped its broker-dealer affiliation with LPL Financial, now a part of Modern Wealth’s independent RIA. And after the deal’s closing on March 1st, Beltz Ianni adopted the Modern Wealth brand.

The company immediately integrated its retirement and individual wealth planning service offerings into Modern Wealth’s platform. And the full Beltz Ianni team transitioned to Modern Wealth while continuing to serve its client base of small-to-midsize businesses, individuals, and families in Western New York.

Beltz Ianni was established in 2001 as a financial services firm focused on retirement planning and investment management. The firm currently manages over $700 million in retirement plan assets for over 100 companies and has nearly $500 million in assets through its individual investor business lines.

Beltz Ianni’s Total Retirement Plan Management solution provides comprehensive retirement plan management tailored for small-to-midsize companies. And Beltz Ianni’s services include fiduciary risk management, fee benchmarking, retirement vendor selection, employee education resources and other retirement plan services.

Companies utilizing retirement plan advisory services may also receive third-party administration support, which provides employers with end-to-end retirement plan administration while maintaining compliance with complex retirement regulations.

Along with launching corporate retirement planning services, Modern Wealth will broaden its wealth management offerings to include Beltz Ianni’s individual retirement planning services, investment management capabilities, and a suite of insurance services. And as a part of Modern Wealth, the Beltz Ianni team (nearly $500 million of client assets in its brokerage and fee-based individual wealth management business) can utilize investment management and back-office support. At the same time, they can tap into the collective knowledge and insights of the firm’s team of specialists spanning CFPs, tax planners, CPAs, CFAs and other specialized planners.

This deal marks Modern Wealth’s sixth transaction less than a year since its launch, propelling its assets under management to over $3 billion pending the successful completion of the asset transition. Modern Wealth expects to make additional acquisition announcements in executing its national expansion strategy in the coming months.

Gladstone Associates advised Beltz Ianni on the transaction.

KEY QUOTES:

“Joining Modern Wealth will enable our team to leverage its breadth of resources to broaden and scale our retirement plan advisory services. Gary, Jason and Mike, along with the rest of the Modern Wealth leadership team, have built a great business in a short period of time. We’re looking forward to providing our clients with an elevated level of service at our new home.”

  • Michelle Cannan, CPFA, QKA, QKC – who joins Modern Wealth as managing director and head of company retirement plan services

“The acquisition of Beltz Ianni not only enables our firm to serve the retirement plan management and administration needs of our business owner clients, but we’ve also added several new personal wealth management team members who will complement our growing and dynamic team. Having expanded our business to the East Coast, we expect to build and maintain our presence in the region for years to come.”

  • Jason Gordo, co-founder and president of Modern Wealth

“What initially drew Beltz Ianni to Modern Wealth was our shared vision of providing excellent client service by adopting a ‘client-first’ mentality. We’re thrilled to join a firm dedicated to empowering advisors to serve clients in a fiduciary capacity and build customized plans to meet their unique financial needs.”

  • Kyle Dunn, CLU, ChFC – who joins Modern Wealth as managing director and executive financial advisor