Press Release
BB&T to Acquire And Merge South Carolina Employee Benefit Firm
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – BB&T Corporation today said it plans to buy employee benefits and investment advisory firm Hunt, DuPree, Rhine & Associates Inc. of Greenville, S.C.
BB&T will combine the 70-year-old firm with W.E. Stanley & Co. Inc., the Greensboro, N.C.-based actuarial and employee benefits consulting company BB&T acquired in 1998. The new firm will be called Stanley, Hunt, DuPree & Rhine Inc. (SHDR) and will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Branch Banking and Trust Company with dual headquarters in Greensboro and Greenville.
"The corporate resources and state-of-the-art technology backbone from BB&T will help position SHDR as one of the dominant benefit consulting firms in the Southeast,” said Phillip Floyd, president of W.E. Stanley & Co.
The transaction, which is subject to regulatory approval, is expected to be completed in June. Terms were not disclosed.
With more than 200 employees, the combined company will offer group medical plans, insurance and investment consulting, actuarial services, benefit communications and 401k and Section 125 flexible benefits programs.
"The integration of our combined resources and expertise will help us become the leading single source benefits provider in the Southeast,” said Chip Hunt, president of Hunt, DuPree, Rhine & Associates.
"Our complementary specialty service lines will provide our clients maximum flexibility in the selection and customization of investment portfolios and employee benefits packages. This level of tailoring means we can better meet the needs of our clients and their employees.”
Floyd will be named chief executive officer of the combined company while Hunt will serve as president. The new company’s key markets will include major metropolitan areas in the Carolinas, Alabama, Georgia, Maryland, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.
W.E. Stanley, the largest actuarial, consulting and administration firm in the Carolinas, was founded in 1954.
Branch Banking and Trust Company is the principal banking subsidiary of Winston-Salem-based BB&T Corporation. BB&T Corp. operates more than 1,100 banking offices in the Carolinas, Virginia, Maryland, Georgia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Indiana and Washington, D.C.
With $74.9 billion in assets as of March 31, BB&T Corp. is the nation’s 13th largest financial holding company. Barron’s, a Dow Jones weekly, recently ranked BB&T as the second highest performing financial institution in the country.
BB&T and its subsidiaries offer full-service commercial and retail banking and additional financial services such as insurance, investments, retail brokerage, corporate finance, international banking, leasing and trust. More information is available at www.BBandT.com.
###
401khelpcenter.com, LLC is not the author of this press release and is not associated or affiliated with any firm or organization mentioned unless otherwise noted. Use of any information obtained from this press release is voluntary, and reliance on it should only be undertaken after an independent review of its accuracy, completeness, efficacy, and timeliness. Reference to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, service mark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not constitute or imply endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by 401khelpcenter.com, LLC.
