nGreat-West Financial, Greenwood Village, Colo., in April announced it had agreed to buy the large-plan institutional defined contribution business of J.P. Morgan Asset Management, New York. The deal is expected to close during the third quarter. The combined record-keeping business will have $387 billion in assets under administration for 6.8 million participants, based on Pensions & Investments' annual survey of record keepers as of Sept. 30. That would put Great-West in second place in assets and in participants behind Fidelity Investments, Boston.
nGreat-West Retirement Services, the defined contribution unit of Great-West Financial, in March was merged with the defined contribution business of Putnam Investments, Boston. The rest of Putnam remains a separate company. Both Putnam and Great-West Financial are owned by Great West Lifeco Inc. Winnipeg, Manitoba.
nAscensusInc, Dresher, Pa., which specializes in record keeping for small plans, in January 2013 completed its purchase of ExpertPlan, East Windsor, N.J., a record keeper focusing on small and micro plans. The acquisition put Ascensus in 21st place with $50.8 billion in record-keeping assets, as of Sept. 30, according to the P&I survey. It ranks 18th in the number of participants with 1.77 million and fourth in the number of sponsor clients with 44,235.
nThe purchase by Massachusetts Life Insurance Co., Springfield, Mass., of the DC record-keeping business of Hartford Financial Services Corp. took effect Jan. 1, 2013. MassMutual, with $108.2 billion in record-keeping assets as of Sept. 30, ranks 14th in assets in the P&I survey. With 2.52 million participants, it is in 12th place.
nThe merger of Transamerica Retirement Services and Diversified took effect Jan. 1, 2013, creating Transamerica Retirement Solutions, based in Harrison, N.Y. The merged company is — and the former companies were — owned by Aegon NV, The Hague, Netherlands. The merged company with $98.5 billion in assets as of Sept. 30 ranks 15th in the P&I survey. It ranks 11th in number of participants with 2.6 million.
