At a glance
- The service lets plan sponsors evaluate, benchmark and select providers; it handles requests for information and proposals for both integrated benefits programs and individual plan searches.
- OpenArc runs an open-architecture platform with no proprietary products, so a search it conducts carries no house-fund or recordkeeper bias.
- OpenArc came to market in September 2025.
OpenArc Corporate Advisory said Tuesday it now offers independent provider search consulting. The service lets plan sponsors evaluate, benchmark and select providers; it handles requests for information and proposals for both integrated benefits programs and individual plan searches.
OpenArc runs an open-architecture platform with no proprietary products, so a search it conducts carries no house-fund or recordkeeper bias. Chad Pigg Fife, principal partner for institutional consulting and corporate business development, told PLANADVISER that existing institutional retirement consulting clients had asked for plan search services. He called the launch "an understandable evolution" and a way to build new client relationships.
The $129 billion breakaway
OpenArc came to market in September 2025. It was launched by a breakaway team from Merrill Lynch that brought $129 billion in institutional and personal client assets. The firm already serves as a 3(38) investment manager or 3(21) fiduciary for mid-, large- and mega-market organizations. In June it added Kevin Crain, executive director of the Institutional Retirement Income Council, as a strategic consultant; the team also includes certified equity professionals and specialists in equity compensation design and governance.
The firm now describes itself as a single fiduciary partner for retirement, deferred compensation, equity compensation, health savings accounts and broader workplace benefits. Provider search is a natural first assignment for that model: hire OpenArc to run an RFP, and the sponsor is well placed to keep the firm as an ongoing fiduciary after the vendor is chosen. Pigg Fife's comment about building initial relationships makes plain that the search line is as much a business development channel as a standalone service. In a market where benefits brokers, consultants and advisory firms all chase the same relationships, OpenArc is betting that one open-architecture platform can cover the full range of workplace benefits.
Reported by the Retirement Advisers desk from PLANADVISER. Published . Corrections