Mesirow Buys Leafhouse’s $23 Billion Fiduciary Unit, Backs Tech Push for CITs

1 articles · Updated · Wealth Management · May 11

Mesirow is adding Leafhouse’s $23 billion fiduciary-services business to its $115 billion platform and separately investing in Leafhouse’s technology arm.
The deal targets a market where 3(21) and 3(38) fiduciary work increasingly demands scale as fees fall and private-market options make plan oversight more complex.
Leafhouse founder Todd Kading keeps the firm’s financial-services and CIT operations, including the CIT Compass platform, which is building a coalition to standardize documents, participation agreements and e-signatures.
CIT adoption is accelerating—34% of large-plan assets already sit in the vehicles, and ICI projects total defined-contribution assets will rise to $9.2 trillion by 2030 from $6.8 trillion in 2025.
That growth is exposing outdated, fragmented CIT workflows, with SEI, Great Gray, Reliance Trust and others also building systems as the industry debates whether open standards or closed provider platforms will prevail.

As low-fee CITs boom, are retirement savers unknowingly trading transparency for cost savings?

Is the race to standardize CITs about market efficiency or a battle to control the industry's future infrastructure?

Can 'Digital Fiduciaries' truly serve clients' best interests without the legal accountability of human advisors?