Strongpoint Partners Announces Partnership with Bates & Company

CHICAGO, IL — September 24, 2026 – Strongpoint Partners ("Strongpoint"), a leading tech-enabled retirement services platform serving small- to mid-sized businesses with integrated retirement third-party administration, actuarial, recordkeeping, payroll, and HR solutions, announced a new partnership with Bates & Company ("Bates"), based in Winter Park, Florida. Founded in 1987 and led by President John Laskowitz, Bates is a retirement plan administration and consulting firm serving small to mid-sized businesses, with a depth of expertise in complex plan design across 401(k), profit sharing, cross-tested, age-weighted, defined benefit, and cash balance plans. Bates joins Strongpoint as its 25th partner firm and the first headquartered in Florida. 

"Nearly all of Bates & Company's growth has come through referrals, which tells you how highly regarded their team is in the industry," said Danny Hest, CEO of Strongpoint Partners. "They've earned that reputation by delivering complex, highly tailored plan designs, including cash balance and cross-tested allocations. Welcoming Bates as Strongpoint's 25th partner, and our first in Florida, brings plan design expertise our whole network can draw on and gives us a home base in one of the country's fastest-growing small business markets." 

"Joining Strongpoint Partners opens a new chapter for our firm," said John Laskowitz, President of Bates & Company. "We looked carefully at what a partner would mean for our clients and then we looked at what it would mean for the firm. Strongpoint was the only platform where the answer to both was the same: our clients keep the account executives and the direct relationships they have relied on for years, and now they sit behind nationwide technology, regulatory, actuarial, and recordkeeping capabilities we could not have built alone, and a network of specialists we can call on when a plan gets complicated. For our team, it means room to grow here in Central Florida and beyond." 

"Expanding to Florida has been on our roadmap for a while," said Jack Toner, Chief Development Officer at Strongpoint Partners. "It is one of the largest and fastest-growing small business markets in the country. Reaching 25 partner firms hasn't changed our approach: we look for firms whose reputations we want to protect, then give them more resources to work with rather than asking them to become something different. Bates is exactly the kind of firm we are proud to partner with. Adding their team gives plan sponsors across Florida a local partner backed by a national platform." 

This partnership represents another step toward Strongpoint’s mission of making retirement work for everyone through access to new markets, tailored solutions, expanded services, and a depth of expertise. As with all of Strongpoint's partnerships, the Bates & Company team will remain in their current roles, continuing to deliver the same trusted service their clients have come to expect. Bates will also contribute its consulting and complex plan design experience to the broader capabilities of the Strongpoint coast-to-coast network. 

About Strongpoint Partners  

Strongpoint Partners is a tech-enabled retirement services platform serving small- to mid-sized businesses with integrated retirement third party administration, recordkeeping, payroll, actuarial, and HR solutions. Recognized as one of Inc. 5000’s Fastest Growing Private Companies in America and certified as a Great Place to Work for two consecutive years, Strongpoint offers a suite of services that 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”), Karel-Gordon & Associates, Cash Balance Actuaries (“CBA”), Pension Consultants, Inc. (“PCI”), Actuaries Unlimited (“AUI”), CRP – California Retirement Plans (“CRP”), Benefit Equity, Inc. (“BEI”), United Benefit Pensions, LLC (“UBP”), Associated Pension Consultants (“APC”), Creative Retirement Systems, LLC (“CRS”), Allied Consultants, Inc. (“ACI”), American Retirement Plan Services, LLC (“ARPS”), SMS Retirement (“SMS”), Bidwell Consulting Services, Inc. (“BCS”), Integrated Pension Design, Inc. (“IPD”), The Finway Group (“TFG”), and Bates & Company (“BAC”). 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 Bates & Company 

 Bates & Company is a retirement plan administration and consulting firm based in Orlando, Florida. Established in 1987, the firm provides consulting, administration, and actuarial services for qualified retirement plans, including 401(k), profit sharing, age-weighted and cross-tested, money purchase pension, defined benefit, cash balance, and 412(e)(3) plans, as well as 403(b), 457, and SEP arrangements. Bates works primarily with small to mid-sized businesses and their advisors, among them medical practices, law firms, and accounting firms across the state of Florida. With more than 120 years of combined experience in retirement plan administration, the Bates team is known for assigning every client a dedicated account executive and for a practice built largely on client referrals.

For more information, please visit: www.batesco.com. 

About Shore Capital Partners  

Shore Capital, a Chicago-based private equity firm with offices in Nashville, is an investor in lower middle market 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 2020-2026, Shore received recognition from Inc. Magazine as a 7x Top Founder Friendly Investor and by Pitchbook Research for leading U.S. Private Equity deal volume for the past 10 years, from 2016-2025. 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 approximately $17 billion of assets under management and in additional investment platforms to which it provides business and operational consulting services.

For more information on these awards and investment platforms, please visit: www.shorecp.com.