A lot of things have changed at Baden Retirement Plan Services in the last three years or so, but what's probably more important are the things that have stayed the same.

The retirement services business, founded in 1991 as a division of accounting firm Baden, Gage & Schroeder, went through several ownership changes in just over two years. But the 49 people who worked there hung on throughout, except for one who left briefly and then came back.

More than 40 percent of the company's employees have been there for 10 years or more and their average length of experience in the field is 11 years. That's important, because much of the business has been built on their relationships with clients.

"As you make those relationships, your referral sources give you more," said Marilyn Manzer, the BRPS vice president who founded the division and has led it through the years.

The name on the door and the company stationery also stayed the same, although technically the firm took on the name of Clark Consulting, which bought the business from Baden Gage & Schroeder in late 2006, for a period of about two months.

"The day our office manager was having the conversation about changing those, we found out that Clark Consulting had been sold to Aegon," recalled Tom Ackmann, who was then managing director.

After Clark's merger with Aegon N.V., BRPS went back to using its own name. The Baden division and some of Clark's other businesses were sold to a privately held firm led by Clark Consulting's executive management. Then that owner, which had taken the name Clark Wamberg LLC, sold BRPS to Ascensus, a division of Crump Group Inc., in early 2009.

Earlier this year, BRPS moved to new quarters at 1102 Chestnut Hills Parkway, about three miles west of the Pointe Inverness offices it shared with its founding firm.

Because the laws and the economy and retirement planning are constantly changing, BRPS requires each employee to complete a certain number of continuing education hours each year. The new offices have a large training room dedicated to that purpose.

The new space also will give the business the room to grow that it didn't have in its old space. Its affiliation with Ascensus, a Dresher, Pa.-based independent retirement plan administrator and record keeper, also gives it some of the technological and sales resources it can use to expand its business.

"It gives us a bigger reach in the U.S., more people on the ground talking to people," Ackmann said. "We always did good, we always had continued growth. What we didn't have was the distribution."

BRPS, which offers services that are compliance-based, complements the bundled approach to services that have been offered by Ascensus, which started in recording keeping and branched out. Now the Ascensus sales staff can offer the separate compliance product to clients that prefer it that way, Ackmann noted.

In addition to its Fort Wayne headquarters, BRPS has an office on the north side of Indianapolis that employs 10 people as a result of its 2002 acquisition of Michael Reece & Associates, a similar business there whose owner had died.

The Indianapolis firm was able to keep its clients and its employees. "It was a blessing for our associates," said Karyn Dzurisin, who manages the office for BRPS, "to let us continue to do what we do, which was focus on clients."

Despite the change in name and ownership, prior customers of the Indianapolis firm told Dzurisin, "I am staying with you because you're all the same people," she recalled.

One major personnel change will occur at the firm this month, however, when Manzer retires March 15. Ackmann, who has been with BRPS 12 years, actually succeeded her as vice president Jan. 1, but Manzer stayed on a little longer to help get the firm through its busiest season.

The company is holding an open house from 4:30-7 p.m. March 16 to honor Manzer and show off its new digs.

Despite the poor economy, Ackmann said he has been gratified that employers have continued to offer retirement plans as a benefit to attract and keep employees. "There have been a lot of changes, certainly, in the employer contribution, which in many cases has been reduced or eliminated," he said.

Participants are looking for new ways to pay for their plans, Ackmann said, and BRPS continues to bring in new clients while continuing to service its current clients. Some have been with the firm since its inception; and the average is about seven years.

So despite changes in ownership, leadership and location, BRPS has one message it wants to convey to existing and potential clients.

"We're here and we're stable," Manzer said.