Foreside Acquires Hardin Compliance Consulting

Foreside continues its move upmarket and strengthens its outsourced compliance and regulatory capabilities for alternative asset managers

PORTLAND, Maine--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Foreside Financial Group, LLC (Foreside), a provider of governance, risk management, and compliance (GRC) solutions and technology offerings to clients in the global asset and wealth management industry, today announced it acquired Hardin Compliance Consulting, LLC. The combination creates one of the largest compliance consulting firms for the financial services industry in the U.S.

Based in Wexford, Pa., Hardin Compliance is a prominent compliance consulting firm with a national footprint serving more than 100 clients. Since its founding in 2006, the firm has excelled at providing customized regulatory compliance services and will complement and grow Foreside’s current service offering in this area.

Foreside will add all of the 30-plus Hardin employees to its ranks.

“We’re thrilled to bring on a firm of Hardin’s caliber that shares Foreside’s passion for building cultures of effective compliance with our clients,” said David Whitaker, president of Foreside. “Not only does it support our overall growth strategy and improve our market position, but it also allows us the ability to scale responsibly to maintain our unparalleled standards in client service.”

“Foreside is a good fit culturally, and we feel confident that our clients and employees will be treated well,” said Matthew S. Hardin, President and CEO of Hardin Compliance. “This combination of Hardin and Foreside brings together two best-in-class providers of compliance services to financial organizations.”

As Foreside continues its steady momentum of growth, this marks the company’s eighth acquisition since 2019. Foreside, which is majority-owned by PE firm Lovell Minnick Partners, previously acquired: (i) Golden Bear Consulting Group, a boutique regulatory compliance consulting firm focused on alternative asset managers, in June 2021; (ii) JG Advisory Services, a comprehensive regulatory solutions provider for hedge and private equity funds, in March 2021; (iii) Capital Markets Compliance, a leading compliance, consulting, and FINOP practice, in January 2021; (iv) ICSGroup, a regulatory compliance services firm serving the asset management industry, in November 2020; (v) Quasar Distributors, U.S. Bancorp’s mutual fund and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) distribution business, in March 2020; (vi) Compliance Advisory Services, a leading regional compliance firm, in October 2019; and (vii) NCS Regulatory Compliance, a comprehensive provider of outsourced compliance and regulatory services, in January 2019.

Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

About Foreside Financial Group

Foreside delivers comprehensive advice and best-in-class technology solutions to clients in the global asset and wealth management industries. Foreside distributes more than $1 trillion* of product through their 17 limited purpose broker-dealers. For 15 years, Foreside’s suite of services and platform-based model have helped automate and simplify compliance and marketing for clients. Foreside works with pooled investment products, investment advisors, broker-dealers, global asset managers, and other financial institutions.

By harnessing state-of-the-art technology, Foreside helps firms address and shape today’s regulatory environment, drive operational efficiency and growth, and focus on value-adding work. Foreside is headquartered in Portland, Maine, with numerous regional offices, including New York and Boston. For more information on Foreside’s suite of services, please visit www.foreside.com.

*as of 1/1/2021