Strongpoint Partners Continues its Market Expansion by Welcoming Specialized Retirement Experts at Carlson | Quinn

CHICAGO, IL — May 1, 2024 – Strongpoint Partners (“Strongpoint”), a tech-enabled financial services platform focused on third-party administration of retirement plans, recordkeeping, payroll, and HR solutions for SMBs, announced a partnership with Carlson Quinn, a specialized retirement plan design, consultation, and compliance firm renowned for its depth of expertise and experience in handling complicated retirement challenges and unique plan structures with industry-leading service and care.

This addition caps a phenomenal Q1 for Strongpoint Partners that included welcoming two new key executives: Marta Sullivan has joined Strongpoint as Chief People Officer to lead human resources, and Jack Toner has joined as Vice President of Corporate Development to lead M&A activities. 

“We started 2023 with fewer than 100 employees,” said Strongpoint CEO Danny Hest, “and with the addition of Carlson Quinn, we now support more than 220 employees across the United States, with more joining in the coming months. With growth like ours, it’s critical that we have a keen focus on employee experience and on talent acquisition and development. Marta brings exceptional insight and expertise to ensure we are building and sustaining employee development programs that can scale as we scale.”

“Strongpoint is an incredible organization with caring leaders who have made people the core of everything they do,” said Sullivan, who previously led HR for organizations such as Refresh Mental Health, BlueSprig, and Standard Register Corporation. “I’m blessed to be here and really looking forward to supporting our continued growth, starting with the addition of Carlson Quinn. They bring a unique perspective on the market that is already adding to our capabilities, and as Chief People Officer the number one thing you look for is team members willing to lean in, share with each other and learn from each other. In that regard, we couldn’t be happier with how Carlson Quinn is integrating into our partnership here at Strongpoint.”

Toner brings over 6 years of M&A experience from financial technology and insurance company Acrisure. Hest explained, “Jack has quickly become a tremendous asset, working closely with Doug Simon, Strongpoint’s Chief Development Officer, to ensure we’re identifying the right potential partners and being very honest about what it means to be a Strongpoint Partner.”

“It’s a really exciting time to join Strongpoint,” added Toner. “Our unique approach is resonating in the marketplace, and when you have the quality of business leaders that we have it becomes very easy to tell our story, because they’re a living embodiment of what it means to be a Strongpoint partner. My focus is on maintaining that culture by bringing in other partners who share that perspective, and so far the market has been highly responsive.”

Reflecting on their decision for Carlson Quinn to join Strongpoint, Brian Quinn and Leif Carlson explained, “It wasn’t only Jack, Marta, Danny, or Doug, all of whom we worked with very closely throughout this process, but all of the other tremendous founders and presidents across Strongpoint made it so clear this was the ideal home for us. As the market continues to evolve, what it takes to be successful also evolves. We had a great business full of really special people, but Strongpoint gives us an opportunity to scale and be a part of building something we simply couldn’t have done on our own. It’s the perfect blend of the ability to maintain our brand, our culture and personality, and what it is we do for our clients that makes us so unique in the market, but to do it with the infrastructure and expertise of a national organization that’s growing at a pace we couldn’t even have imagined previously.”

To learn more about Strongpoint Partners, please visit www.strongpointpartners.com or email info@strongpointpartners.com. 

About Strongpoint Partners

Strongpoint Partners is a fast-growing, tech-enabled financial services platform that provides third-party retirement administration (“TPA”), recordkeeping, and integrated payroll and HR technology solutions for small and medium businesses. Strongpoint’s suite of services prioritizes accuracy, compliance, and reduction of regulatory risk for its clients, delivered by local client success teams that understand the nuances of the markets they serve. With a coast-to-coast network of leading firms including HowardSimon, Jocelyn Pension Consulting, Retirement Strategies Group (“RSG”), Retirement Planners and Administrators (“RPA”), Pension Financial Services (“PFS”), Pollard & Associates, and Carlson Quinn, Strongpoint Partners combines a relentless passion for service and innovation with the experience and expertise required to make retirement work for everyone. For more information, please visit: www.strongpointpartners.com. 

About Carlson Quinn

Carlson Quinn was founded as a retirement consulting firm in 1994 by Leif Carlson and Brian Quinn. Over the years, the firm has built a solid reputation as a strategic retirement consulting firm and third-party administrator by providing high-quality, personalized service to their clients and employees. Carlson Quinn works with an extensive network of professional associates, including RIAs, ERISA attorneys, CPAs, and actuaries to enhance the breadth and depth of the services they provide to their clients.  Backed by their staff of retirement experts and external partner resources, Carlson Quinn provide clients with customized services in consulting, administration, actuarial valuation, and legal compliance on a breadth of retirement programs including 401(k) plans, 403(b) plans, 457 plans, profit sharing plans, traditional defined benefit pension plans, cash balance plans, ESOPs, and non-qualified deferred compensation plans.  Carlson Quinn works with for-profit, non-profit, government agencies, and publicly-traded companies. The firm’s clients include sole proprietors, small-size companies, mid-size organizations, and corporations with thousands of employees in a broad spectrum of industries, including banks, law firms, CPA firms, medical groups, wholesalers, retailers, manufacturers, architects, construction companies, wineries, real estate management firms, and foundations.

About Shore Capital Partners

Shore Capital, a Chicago-based private equity firm with an office in Nashville, is an investor in microcap companies in the Healthcare, Food and Beverage, Business Services, Industrial, and Real Estate industries. Shore’s strategy is to support management partners to grow faster with less risk, through access to capital; world-class board and operational resources; and unmatched networking, development, and shared learnings across the portfolio. From 2020-2023 Shore received recognition from Inc. Magazine as a 4x Top Founder-Friendly Investor and by Pitchbook for being the global leader in private equity total deal volume. Shore targets investments in proven, successful companies with superior management teams, stable cash flow, and significant potential to grow through industry consolidation and organic growth to generate value for shareholders. Shore has approximately $6 billion of assets under management through various investment vehicles. For more information, please visit www.shorecp.com.

Contacts

Michael Heflin, Strongpoint Partners
media@strongpointpartners.com