AssetMark is acquiring $12 billion in assets by taking over the Morningstar Wealth Asset Management Platform, the companies announced Thursday.
Morningstar Wealth will join the AssetMark platform as a third-party strategist, offering advisors model portfolios and separately managed accounts managed by Morningstar.
After the transaction closes later this year, Morningstar Wealth will terminate its US TAMP.
In the months after the deal closes, Morningstar Wealth's TAMP clients will transition their accounts to AssetMark's platform. The account migration process is expected to not require additional new customer documents and customer performance histories will be preserved.
“This will be relatively easy for advisers and clients,” he said Daniel Needham, president of Morningstar Wealth. “Our focus is to make it as seamless as possible and we will continue to manage our platform and deliver for our customers through the transition.”
The transaction was approved by the boards of directors of AssetMark Financial Holdings, the parent company of AssetMark, and Morningstar, of which Morningstar Wealth is a division. Subject to regulatory approval, necessary consents and other customary closing conditions, the deal is expected to close in the second half of 2024.
“The platform business is an operation of scale,” Needham said. “We explored different ways to do this and a partnership model was appealing.”
In April, AssetMark Financial Holdings agreed to be acquired by GTCR, a private equity firm. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of the year.
AssetMark Financial Holdings was founded in 1996 and has over 1,000 employees. The AssetMark platform serves over 9,200 advisors and over 257,000 households. As of March 31, the company had $116.9 billion in platform assets.
Morningstar Investment Management has $294 billion in assets under management and advice globally.