Now, two years since OneAmerica first answered Edward Jones' request for proposal, the two companies have partnered to offer a new set of retirement solutions for their Edward Jones' employer clients.
OneAmerica will offer 401(k) and 403(b) plan designs and recordkeeping through American United Life Insurance, which it holds. According to the vice president of business strategy at OneAmerica, Peter Welsh, the advisor firm and distributor were a strong match given that both companies aim their products toward businesses in the $1 million to $30 million range.
Moreover, Edward Jones sent out around 30 RFPs looking for a group that could provide solutions for its tax exempt clients such as municipal hospitals.
"Our target market for this offering is in the $500,000 to $5 million range, and also the tax exempt offering because [Edward Jones] does a lot of municipal hospitals, which are in that $5 to $30 million range, and that's really our core target market," Welsh explained over the phone.
Indianapolis-based OneAmerica already works with regional broker-dealers, and after adding Edward Jones to the list, the company is looking to expand its reach into the wirehouse market.
"Edward jones would be the last one in terms of the regional broker-dealers in my opinion that we don't have a relationship with from Raymond James to LPL," Welsh said. "If we were going to expand more it would be on the traditional wirehouse side, expanding our relationship with Merrill Lynch. We don't have a relationship with Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, so that might be something we'll try to tackle next year too."
Welsh hopes that their deal will eventually bring back several hundred million dollars in revenue from St. Louis, Mo.-based Edward Jones' 12,000 advisors nation-wide.
