AmeriLife announces its partnership with FormulaFolios and merging it into Brookstone Capital Management
AmeriLife Group, the distributor of life, health and retirement solutions, is combining “two of the industry’s largest and fastest-growing” RIA firms, Brookstone Capital Management and FormulaFolios, to create a $6.5 billion RIA.
This merger is supported by the recent partnership with FormulaFolios, an RIA with $3.5 billion in AUM, and occurs just one year after AmeriLife forged its partnership with Brookstone, a leading RIA that provides fee-based asset management services. This latest announcement further positions AmeriLife as one of the largest independent marketing and RIA organizations in the U.S.
“We’ve raised the bar again, combining two of the industry’s largest and fastest-growing firms – Brookstone Capital Management and FormulaFolios – to create an RIA in excess of $6.5 billion,” said Scott R. Perry, Chairman and CEO of AmeriLife. “This addition to the AmeriLife family continues to reinforce our position as a leading provider of advisory services to our targeted niche of retirement advisors. It’s a major step toward AmeriLife’s strategic goal of providing full-service life and health insurance and retirement and legacy planning services to our agents, advisors and clients nationwide.”
The merger of FormulaFolios and Brookstone was completed on July 1, 2020. The combined entity now creates one of the largest RIAs catering to the independent retirement advisor community, with more than 800 advisors working from 500 offices across all 50 states. The FormulaFolios brand will be retained for continued oversight of the asset management division.
Key executives of both firms will be retained, with Dean Zayed, JD, LLM, CFP as CEO of Brookstone and President of AmeriLife’s Investment Advisory Services division, and Darryl Ronconi as President and COO of Brookstone. Jason Wenk, co-founder of FormulaFolios, will serve as Executive Director at Brookstone.
“The addition of FormulaFolios extends our investment platform and enhances the training and resources we can provide to affiliated independent advisors,” said Zayed. “Now, our combined organization delivers next-generation technology platforms, enhanced financial planning support, greater investment selection, digital marketing and lead generation solutions, and robust training and networking opportunities for advisors at each level of their career.”
Through its partnership with Brookstone, AmeriLife entered the RIA space last year. This allowed AmeriLife to provide a more holistic approach to meeting the needs of consumers by helping insurance-focused advisors obtain their securities license. In acquiring FormulaFolios, AmeriLife further enhances its RIA platform for advisors and rapidly moves the company toward its goal of exceeding $10 billion in AUM.
In addition to FormulaFolios, AmeriLife has steadily acquired interests in organizations to further extend and enhance offerings to its more than 150,000 affiliated agents and advisors. In addition to Brookstone, acquisitions over the past 12 months include: Pinnacle Financial Services, a full-service health, life, annuity and long-term care marketing organization (May 2020); Jack Schroeder and Associates, a Medicare plan distributor (April 2020); J.D. Mellberg Financial, an annuity and retirement planning organization (Feb. 2020); Stephens-Matthews Marketing, an insurance marketing organization (Jan. 2020); and Agent Support Group, a multi-company life insurance brokerage agency (Dec. 2019).
AmeriLife’s vision is to become the dominant distribution platform in the life and health insurance, annuity, and retirement planning marketplace by adding value for carriers, agents, advisors and consumers. The company’s commitment to providing the finest and most innovative solutions to prepare retirees and pre-retirees for their retirement years has remained intact for nearly half a century, adapting to the ever-changing needs of its targeted clients. AmeriLife’s future plans include continued expansion of its platform to offer all-inclusive solutions that ultimately serve pre-retiree and retirees as this market segment continues to grow.
In January 2020, AmeriLife announced a recapitalization agreement with private equity firm Thomas H. Lee Partners, L.P., which has helped fuel the company’s continued rapid expansion.
