Meketa acquires Pension Consulting Alliance

Meketa Investment Group agreed to acquire Pension Consulting Alliance.

Terms of the deal, which is expected to close in the first half of 2019, were not disclosed.

Meketa serves more than 170 clients with assets totaling roughly $1.1 trillion. PCA, which provides general, real estate and private markets investment consulting services, has non-discretionary consulting relationships representing more than $1.4 trillion in institutional client assets.

Once the deal closes, Meketa's client assets will represent $1.7 trillion and the firm will consult on more than $100 billion in private markets and real estate assets.

The 30 staff members of PCA intend to join Meketa. Meketa's co-CEOs Stephen McCourt and Peter Woolley will continue to lead the firm.

"Our plan is to take the best of both organizations and have a combined entity that's even more competitive in the marketplace," Mr. McCourt said in a phone interview. "To be able to add 30 really talented people to an organization like ours is a really powerful thing."

Allan Emkin, founder and managing director of PCA, will serve on Meketa's board and will continue to work as a consultant for certain clients. Christy Fields, managing director at PCA, will also join Meketa's board. PCA managing directors Judy Chambers and Neil Rue will join Meketa's executive committee.

Despite the growing trend of consolidation within the investment-consulting industry, Mr. McCourt said: "This opportunity presented itself completely separate from broader trends of consolidation. We're both growing, both winning mandates. For us, it was much more about coming to the realization that we were two organizations sharing a lot of commonalities that could be stronger together."