OpenArc expands fiduciary reach into provider search

OpenArc, the Dynasty-backed registered investment adviser, became the largest wirehouse team ever to go independent last year, according to InvestmentNews. Now it is moving into the business of choosing benefits providers. The firm will run independent requests for information and requests for proposals across retirement plans, equity compensation, deferred compensation and health savings accounts, offering plan sponsors a single fiduciary partner for provider evaluation and selection.

Announced Tuesday, the service covers integrated benefits packages and standalone plan searches. OpenArc will act as an RIA in one of two capacities — as a 3(38) investment manager or a 3(21) fiduciary — and the search consulting is added to the investment oversight and governance support its institutional practice already provides. The relationship now runs from first provider evaluation through selection and continued monitoring.

Chad Pigg Fife, principal partner for institutional consulting and corporate business development, says plan sponsors face growing pressure to assess providers across the entire benefits stack. A 401(k) plan, a nonqualified deferred compensation plan, an equity compensation program and an HSA each have their own providers and administrative structures. "OpenArc [helps] organizations navigate provider complexity, make informed decisions, and fulfill their fiduciary responsibilities," Fife said, describing the firm as the "independent fiduciary partner in the room."

The pitch is independence. OpenArc manages no investment products, administers no plans and accepts no revenue-sharing payments from providers; the firm says that keeps its recommendations tied to sponsor and participant interests. That stance is a direct challenge to a benefits market that, in OpenArc's telling, is consolidating around a handful of large integrated recordkeepers and administrators — bundled providers that make it hard for sponsors to see where the economics sit.

The move lands in a fiduciary market that is consolidating in two ways. Mesirow's purchase of flexPATH's plan-level book was its second 3(38) acquisition of 2026, according to Retirement Capital Daily. Mesirow folded that book into a $164 billion platform. Mesirow is buying fiduciary mandates outright. OpenArc is building them one service line at a time.

Provider search can also start an RIA relationship. A sponsor that hires OpenArc to run an RFP has already accepted the firm as a named fiduciary, so the monitoring mandate and the 3(38) assignment become next steps instead of a cold pitch. The search work gives OpenArc something to sell to sponsors not ready to hand over a continuing fiduciary mandate: a project-based RFP fee is likely a smaller commitment than an ongoing 3(38) engagement.

Provider selection is a fiduciary act, and OpenArc is putting its RIA registration behind it. The strongest pitch for independent advisers is that they can charge for search work and claim a fiduciary role without needing the balance sheet of a national consulting firm.

OpenArc's client base spans mid-market, large-market and mega-market employers. Its institutional team includes Certified Equity Professionals with backgrounds in equity compensation plan design and governance. In June, Kevin Crain, formerly head of retirement research at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, joined as a strategic consultant, according to InvestmentNews.

The provider-search expansion is a bet that sponsors will pay for independence in choosing benefits vendors, not just for investment oversight. Whether it pays depends on how comfortable employers are unbundling a process many have let their recordkeepers run. If they are, the RFP service becomes a recurring relationship — and the next fight over who owns the plan sponsor's benefits decisions.