Stone Point Capital Acquires Majority Stake in NFP Advisor Services

In The News
April 4, 2016

Ropes & Gray represented National Financial Partners (NFP), a portfolio company of Madison Dearborn Partners, in its agreement with funds affiliated with Stone Point Capital LLC (Stone Point) pursuant to which Stone Point will acquire majority ownership of NFP Advisor Services, which as part of the transaction will be rebranded as Kestra Financial. NFP will maintain a significant minority ownership stake in Kestra and Kestra and NFP will enter into a long-term, reciprocal agreement for Kestra to serve as the preferred broker-dealer and registered investment adviser for NFP offices and membership organizations.

The transaction, announced April 4, is expected to close within 90 days, subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

NFP is a leading insurance broker and consultant that provides employee benefits, property & casualty, retirement, and individual insurance and wealth management solutions. NFP was recently ranked by Business Insurance as the fifth largest global benefits broker by revenue, the fourth largest U.S.-based privately owned broker and the 11th largest broker of U.S. business. In addition, PlanSponsor named NFP the fifth largest executive benefits provider of nonqualified deferred compensation by number of plans, and it was ranked 11th in personal lines P&C revenue by Insurance Journal. Stone Point is a private equity firm focused on investing in the global financial services industry.

The Ropes & Gray team was led by private equity partner Matthew Richards (Chicago) and included investment management partner Win Quayle (Boston); tax & benefits partners Eric Elfman, Pamela Glazier, Renata Ferrari and Jennifer Rikoski (all of Boston); and finance partner Alexander Zeltser (New York).