EPIC Advisors, a 401(k) recordkeeping firm that is a subsidiary of NBT Bancorp, has acquired Retirement Plan Services.
Retirement Plan Services, based in Brentwood, Mo., provides full-service recordkeeping, administration and plan design solutions for employers nationwide. With the addition of this new business, the $9.1 billion-asset company will have clients in all 50 states and serve more than 220,000 plan participants through its retirement plan services, John Watt Jr., president and CEO of NBT said in a press release on Thursday.
"We're pleased to have this opportunity to continue the growth of our well-established retirement services business with the acquisition of [Retirement Plan Services] by EPIC," Watt said in the press release.
The sale price was not disclosed.
Retirement Plan Services has a team of 60 professionals and serves more than 650 qualified retirement plans with over 40,000 participants that have accumulated over $3 billion in assets, Collyn Gilbert, an analyst at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, wrote in a research note.
This deal should add to NBT’s fee revenue, which should help offset any lost net interest income if the yield curve was to flatten, Gilbert wrote. NBT currently generates 17% of its total fee income from its retirement plan administration business, Gilbert wrote.
NBT, of Norwich, N.Y., has grown its retirement plan services business organically and more recently through acquisitions since buying EPIC in 2005. The acquisitions have included Downeast Pension Services in Gloucester, Maine, last year; Actuarial Designs & Solutions in Scarborough, Maine, in 2016; and Third Party Administrators in Bedford, N.H., in 2015.
