Dynasty Financial Partners and Diamond Consultants on Monday announced the launch of a new initiative the firms said is targeted at U.S. broker-dealer (BD) and wirehouse advisor teams managing $1 billion or more in client assets who want to explore their options.
According to the firms, the new Breakaway Investment Banking Initiative is designed to help advisors weigh options including transitioning to independence and raising growth capital, changing wirehouses, finding an employment model structure, merging with an RIA or selling to an RIA.
Although it is “complementary to Dynasty’s core platform and services, this initiative stands apart as a distinct, purpose-built solution for the industry’s most complex advisor teams,” the firms said in a news release.
The firms said this collaboration addresses a shift now underway in the marketplace, in which advisor teams have more choices and decisions with higher stakes than before.
The new Dynasty-Diamond initiative “grew out of ongoing conversations we’ve had over the last year about the evolving needs of top advisor teams,” Louis Diamond, CEO of Diamond Consultants, told WSR by email.
He and Shirl Penney, CEO and Founder of Dynasty Financial Partners, were “seeing the same market shift where $1B+ wirehouse teams now face more complex choices than ever, including independence, transitioning to another W-2 firm, and now transacting their businesses,” Diamond recalled.
“Both Shirl and I recognized that no single firm was equipped to guide them objectively across all three paths,” he said. “The collaboration was a natural extension of our complementary strengths: Diamond’s strategic advisory and transition expertise, and Dynasty’s institutional-grade investment banking capabilities and decade plus run helping top teams breakaway for independence.”
For the new initiative, Diamond Consultants “serves as the strategic quarterback, leading advisor education, market evaluation, and due diligence across the full range of options — W-2, independence, minority sale, or sale/merger,” according to Diamond.
“Dynasty, through its investment bank, handles the transaction execution side: valuations, consulting, capital raising, competitive M&A processes, and deal structuring. Together, we’re delivering a seamless, objective solution that helps elite teams make the right strategic decision and then execute it with institutional-level support.”
Diamond added, “We’re already engaged with several large wirehouse teams each managing over $1 billion in client assets who are leveraging this model to explore multiple strategic paths, from independence to minority recapitalizations. While we can’t name them publicly yet due to confidentiality, we expect the first wave of transitions and transactions under this umbrella to be announced in the coming months.”
Although Monday’s announcement marks their “first ever joint venture,” Diamond noted that his firm previously “partnered with Dynasty on over a dozen breakaway transitions over the years,” most recently the launch of OpenArc Corporate Advisory that was announced in September.
“We see a growing need for investment banking services from large, sophisticated teams looking to evaluate their strategic options versus taking a recruiting check from a wirehouse or accepting a buyout offer,” Penney said in the news release.
He added, “Our mission is to empower independent RIAs and, as advisor teams become more advanced, we are uniquely positioned to help them professionalize, operationalize and de-risk their businesses sooner.”
Dynasty Investment Bank advised on 15 M&A deals and capital raises in 2024, including cross-border public company M&As, domestic sell-side transactions, strategic recapitalizations, valuations and capital-raising mandates, according to the firm.
Dynasty Investment Bank launched in 2023 and has been providing specialized services to wealth and asset management firms, including M&A advice and execution to buyers and sellers, capital raising, valuations and succession planning, Dynasty noted.
Over the past decade, Diamond Consultants said it has transitioned more than $400 billion in assets under management (AUM), noting, “Over 25% of all $1 billion+ transitioning advisors in a given year have historically been clients.”
Jeff Berman, Contributing Editor and Reporter at Wealth Solutions Report, can be reached at jeff.berman@wealthsolutionsreport.com.
