Ascensus Acquires Vanguards Small Business Retirement Plans WSOC TV [Video]

Ascensus, the largest player in the retirement investment space, announced it will acquire many small business retirement plans from Vanguard. This will bring the total number of Vanguard plans that Ascensus will service to almost 280,000.

Vanguard isn’t selling the employer-based 401(k) plans it administers. Rather, it’s divesting some of its small business retirement plans.

This deal, expected to close in Q3 of this year, includes solo 401(k) plans, multi-SEP IRAs and SIMPLE IRAs. (Vanguard will continue to service one-person SEP IRAs at this time.) These are all cousins of the traditional and Roth 401(k) and IRA. They typically are reserved for small businesses or solopreneurs.

As part of the announcement, a Vanguard representative says administering these plans “increasingly requires deep specialization, and we believe business owners and their employees will be best served by an organization with significant expertise and scale.”

Vanguard is one of money expert Clark Howard’s “three favorite children.” He recommends …