Palm Ventures, LLC is the lead investor in FIRE Solutions along with The Palmer Group. The acquisition is part of NRS’s strategy to provide a comprehensive, single-source compliance portfolio to its clients that will enable them to fulfil their regulatory requirements.
In addition to its state-of-the-art learning management system and industry leading educational content, the FIRE Solutions team, with its deep knowledge and experience for broker-dealers, will be joining NRS. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
The FIRE Solutions products comprise: firm element and other continuing education content; annual compliance meeting; and securities exam preparation solutions to broker-dealers. In the US, there are over 4,000 broker-dealers and almost 640,000 registered representatives who are subject to mandated requirements for education throughout their career. NRS currently re-sells the FIRE Solutions continuing education offering as an integrated solution with its ComplianceMax platform and will incorporate all of the FIRE content in its solutions for broker-dealers and investment advisers.
The acquisition brings together two complementary and successful businesses, says RELX Group (NRS’s and Accuity’s parent company). The combination of NRS’s comprehensive compliance technology, deep subject matter expertise and renowned customer service, together with FIRE Solutions’ learning technology and broker-dealer expertise, will allow NRS to offer customers an integrated compliance technology and training portfolio while reducing vendor management burdens, says the company.
John Gebauer, President of NRS, said: “The acquisition of FIRE Solutions supports our strategy of providing a holistic compliance solution to our customers and will help us further serve broker-dealers at a time of burgeoning regulation such as the DOL Fiduciary rule. Given our existing product integration with FIRE Solutions and desire to address key regulatory requirements for NRS’ core customer set, FIRE Solutions is a natural fit for NRS. We already know and respect the FIRE Solutions team and know that we share the same high commitment to quality and customer service. We look forward to welcoming the FIRE Solutions team and their clients to the NRS community.”
Eric Sternbach, CEO, FIRE Solutions, said: “Having worked with the NRS team for many years we are excited to become a part of the family. Our shared belief in the importance of long term customer relationships bodes well for the future development and evolution of our educational solutions. This transaction is very good news for both our employees and our clients who will benefit from NRS’s commitment to investing in the solutions and delivering a holistic platform for our clients.”
