Strongpoint Partners Announces Partnership with Karel-Gordon & Associates

CHICAGO, IL — November 20, 2024 – Strongpoint Partners (“Strongpoint”), a tech-enabled retirement services platform serving small- to mid-sized businesses with integrated retirement third-party administration, recordkeeping, payroll, and HR solutions, announced a new partnership with Karel-Gordon & Associates, a leader in custom-retirement solutions and administration based in Illinois that has proudly served the greater Chicago-land area for more than 49 years.

“Walking into Strongpoint and seeing the amount of collaboration that’s happening immediately reinforced how great of a decision we made in joining,” said Holly Danziger, Principal & President of Karel-Gordon. “The thought leadership and operational planning on SECURE 2.0 coming out of the Strongpoint working group is incredible, and we are so excited to be a part of crafting the future of administration and plan consulting alongside the amazing leaders and experts at Strongpoint. We’re less than a week in, and we’re already collaborating on how we can improve our onboarding processes to create more throughput for growth, and we’ve had the opportunity to contribute our expertise and leadership in the area of combo plan administration. Our team also joined a bi-monthly Town Hall where they were introduced to a few hundred new colleagues and welcomed behind the curtain to everything going on across Strongpoint. We feel very welcomed and already aligned with how these groups all support each other to grow and better serve our clients.”

With the addition of Karel-Gordon, Strongpoint now has nearly 300 employees across the United States and serves over 9,000 unique clients across its lines of business. In August, Strongpoint was recognized among Inc. 5000’s fastest-growing private companies, and with several additional partners expected to join in the final months of 2024, Strongpoint is on pace to be one of the largest and fastest-growing, independent retirement plan design and consulting firms in the industry.

Alongside Danziger, who will continue in her role as President of Karel-Gordon, is Seth Silverman, Principal and Head of Growth. Danziger and Silverman have led the organization for more than a decade, and have overseen transformational growth through matured business practices and the opening of new markets, leveraging the deep expertise that is the foundation of Karel-Gordon.

“I’ve known the team at Karel-Gordon going back decades,” said Howard Simon, Founder of HowardSimon & Associates and a Founding Partner at Strongpoint. “I have the utmost respect for the passion and expertise they bring to the retirement services marketplace, and thought they would make a perfect addition to what we’re building at Strongpoint.”

Danny Hest, CEO of Strongpoint Partners, agreed, “I’m grateful that Howard was so persistent in advising me about Karel-Gordon since my first day on the job. It’s a very high-quality firm with terrific employees whom the leaders deeply care about. Seth has a great passion for growth, and Holly is one of the most impressive operational leaders I’ve met in this industry. It was very clear that we were a great fit for each other.”

Danziger and Silverman evaluated many options to help Karel-Gordon continue to grow and evolve, including further internal investments and partnering with a retirement platform.

“We’ve had the opportunity to watch from up close what is being built at Strongpoint over the past few years, and have been so impressed with their team, their approach, and the other partners,” said Silverman. “As the second generation of leadership at Karel-Gordon, Holly and I take great pride in continuing the legacy of the firm, and we also view it as our duty to position the organization and our amazing employees for future success. Our team is like a family, our brand is meaningful to our clients, and we believe if you’re not growing, you’re dying. So, as we looked at all the ways that we could take that next step as an organization, Holly and I just realized it was a very unique opportunity with Strongpoint. There really wasn’t a close second for us.”

Karel-Gordon was advised on the partnership process by Wise Rhino Group.

About Strongpoint Partners

Strongpoint Partners is an Inc. 5000 recognized fast-growing, tech-enabled retirement services platform serving small- to mid-sized businesses with integrated retirement third party administration, recordkeeping, payroll, and HR solutions. 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, Carlson Quinn, SI GROUP, Retirement Planning Consulting Group (“RPCG”), and Karel-Gordon & Associates, 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 Karel-Gordon

Founded in 1975 by Jerry Karel and Marc Gordon, Karel-Gordon & Associates is a pension administration and consulting firm based in Deerfield, Illinois. Now under the leadership of Holly Danziger and Seth Silverman, the second generation of ownership, the firm is supported by a dedicated team of 26 professionals, including enrolled actuaries, consultants, and qualified plan administrators.

Karel-Gordon & Associates specializes in crafting customized pension plans tailored to meet the needs of small businesses. Their mission is to provide innovative, high-quality solutions that prioritize thoughtful plan design, exceptional service, and deep industry expertise. Working primarily through referrals from accountants, attorneys, and financial advisors, Holly, Seth, and their team apply their in-depth knowledge of tax regulations to develop and administer plans that align with the financial goals of business owners. Their service model emphasizes simplifying the complex, a goal-oriented approach, and a commitment to accessibility and responsiveness to client needs.

For more information, please visit our website at www.karelgordon.com.

About Shore Capital Partners

Shore Capital, a Chicago based private equity firm with offices 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 research for being the global leader in Private Equity total deal volume. Shore targets investments in proven, successful private 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 over $7 billion of assets under management and in additional investment platforms to which it provides business and operational consulting services.

For more information, including with respect to these awards and investment platforms, please visit: www.shorecp.com.