Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual) and Stone Ridge Holdings Group announced Monday they have entered into a definitive agreement for MassMutual to acquire Flourish, a fintech platform for registered investment advisers (RIAs).
The acquisition will grow MassMutual’s product suite and will help the company to deliver “digitally-enabled financial planning,” the company said. Although the financial terms of the transaction weren’t disclosed, the deal is anticipated to close in the first quarter of 2021, pending regulatory and third-party approvals.
Flourish provides products and services to RIAs and has a cash management offering called Flourish Cash, which is a service offered by Stone Ridge Securities, a registered broker-dealer. As part of the acquisition, MassMutual will purchase Stone Ridge Securities from Stone Ridge Holdings Group. Stone Ridge Asset Management – a subsidiary of Stone Ridge Holdings Group – has more than $10 billion in assets under management that focuses on RIAs, institutions and insurance companies. It’s registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Following the acquisition, Flourish will operate independently from MassMutual’s insurance and wealth management business but will leverage MassMutual’s resources and knowledge to expand the product offering. Flourish serves more than 350 RIAs that represent $600 billion of assets under management.
“MassMutual is focused on providing a simplified, digital, customer-centric user experience, and Flourish will help accelerate that strategy, ultimately supporting our vision of providing financial well-being for all Americans,” Gareth Ross, MassMutual head of enterprise technology and experience, said in a statement.
MassMutual is a mutual life insurance company that offers financial products and services including life insurance, disability income insurance, annuities and retirement plans.
Acquisition activity in the insurtech space is heating up as of late. Last week, insurtech startup Next Insurance made its first-ever acquisition — Juniper Labs, a Denver-based provider of automated underwriting for sellers of insurance to small businesses. Palo Alto, California-based Next Insurance announced the acquisition on December 10. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
Earlier this month, digital life insurance platform Bestow entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Iowa-based Centurion Life Insurance Company — a deal that pushes the insurtech to become a nationally licensed carrier.
We’ll be talking to MassMutual about this deal later today and will update the story accordingly.