The firm, which is headquartered in Jersey, in the Channel Islands, said the US personal trust market is a big opportunity with about $1.2 trillion of assets under administration.

Global professional services business JTC has entered a definitive agreement to acquire TC3 Group Holdings, trading as South Dakota Trust Company for up to $270 million. The move is another M&A foray by Jersey-based JTC into the US market.

The acquisition of SDTC will establish JTC as the “leading independent provider of administration services to the US personal trust sector,” JTC said in a statement today. 

The US personal trust market, with about $1.2 trillion assets under administration, is “highly attractive with strong structural growth drivers,” JTC said.

Nigel Le Quesne, CEO of JTC (pictured), said: "SDTC is a great addition to the JTC Group. It is a market-leader in the fast-growing personal trust market in the US, which in turn is the largest in the world. It has a highly committed service-focused team with deep client relationships, an outstanding track record of profitability and growth, and is hugely complementary to our existing US operations, particularly our existing South Dakota business and building on our acquisition of NYPTC last year.”  

In November last year, JTC signaled its ambitions by wrapping up its purchase of New York Private Trust Company, a Delaware-chartered non-deposit trust company. The move is part of a wider M&A trend affecting the North American and global wealth management industry. 

In the case of SDTC, it provides access to over 1,700 high net worth and ultra-high net worth family clients, including more than 100 billionaires and 350 centi-millionaires, based on an intermediary network.

With increased scale and JTC’s additional service offering, such as its private office, which provides corporate, accounting, regulatory reporting and family governance services, the acquisition will provide opportunities to increase JTC’s share of wallet in the wider private client services market in the US, it said. 

Once the deal is done, JTC said it will have a total of 15 US offices, including both private client services and institutional client services, spanning the East to the West coast, with over 300 employees. It will enable JTC to further develop and expand its personal trust services offering in a large and growing market.

Le Quesne added: “Not only does it bring us greater scale in the US, it also provides significant opportunities to offer our wider private client services to their high net worth and ultra-high net worth family clients. The acquisition also very much delivers on our previously-announced strategy to grow a market-leading US personal trust business.”

Last year, this news service explored JTC's broader strategy, including its growth ambitions for the US.