Genworth launches newly integrated wealth platform

FWR Staff

19 August 2008

The result of merging AssetMark with Genworth Financial Asset Management. Richmond, Va.-based Genworth Financial has completed the integration of two third-party investment platforms, AssetMark Investment Services and Genworth Financial Asset Management (GFAM), to create Genworth Financial Wealth Management (GFWM).

Genworth paid $230 million for AssetMark up front in the fall of 2006 and agreed to pay another $110 million over five years contingent on AssetMark meeting certain performance objectives. When the deal was announced in June 2006 it stood to nearly triple Genworth's third-party mutual-fund wrap and separately managed account assets to around $11 billion.

Deep roots

"The integration of AssetMark and Genworth Financial Asset Management creates a unique opportunity to bring together two companies with deep roots in the independent advisory business and a shared vision for the future," says Ronald Cordes, co-chairman of Genworth Financial Wealth Management with Gurinder Ahluwalia "We were able to examine what each company did well individually, blend the best of both platforms and create new tools and services to meet the evolving needs of independent financial advisors."

This integration results in "a single platform comprehensive investment-management, client-relationship-management and practice-management solutions," according to Ahluwalia.

Cordes founded AssetMark in 1996 with Brian O'Toole, GFWM's CEO, and Richard Steiny, its president. Ahluwalia was head of GFAM, which has been around since the mid 1980s, prior to its integration with AssetMark.

Pleasant Hill, Calif.-based GFWM provides investment-management and consulting services to independent financial advisors. It supports over 4,000 advisors with a combined total of $20 billion in assets under management. -FWR

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