Truist Financial agrees to sell institutional retirement business

Truist Financial Corp. has sold its institutional 401(k) investment advisory services business to OneDigital Investment Advisors and agreed to sell its institutional 401(k) recordkeeping business to Ascensus and Empower Retirement LLC.

Under the OneDigital deal, investment advisory services for about 1,200 plans, representing $10 billion in plan assets, will now be delivered by OneDigital.

Ascensus will acquire the heritage BB&T 401(k) recordkeeping business, which includes more than 1,200 retirement plans, consisting of about 125,000 plan participants and $5 billion in assets. Empower will acquire the heritage SunTrust 401(k) recordkeeping business, which includes approximately 300 retirement plans, with about 73,000 plan participants and $5 billion in plan assets. OneDigital will serve as adviser to most of the plans that Empower will administer, according to a separate news release from Empower.

Financial terms of the three transactions were not disclosed. The OneDigital deal closed Dec. 31. The deals with Ascensus and Empower are scheduled to close in the first quarter.

Alston & Bird served as legal counsel and Truist Securities served as financial adviser to Truist Financial.