Summit Financial announced Wednesday it took a minority stake in Signet Financial Management, a $1.2 billion RIA that, like Summit, is based in Parsippany, New Jersey. New York private investment firm Merchant Investment Management holds stakes in Summit and Signet.
“Signet joined Summit’s ADV in February,” Stan Gregor, CEO and Chairman of Summit Financial, told WSR by email. “Summit ended February with just over $27 billion” in client assets under administration (AUA), he said.
Signet, founded in 1988, also has one office each in Sterling, Virginia, and Miami and Naples, Florida, according to its website. The RIA is one of the largest RIA firms to join Summit.
Led by Partners Eugene Yashin, CEO and Chief Investment Officer; Steve Tuttle, Chief Investment Strategist; and Shawn Hirsch, Signet advises business owners, families and individual investors.
According to Summit, this deal follows its strategy of partnering with RIAs through investments and the provision of technology, investment and planning capabilities while allow them to maintain independence.
“We are honored and humbled that Signet has agreed to partner with Summit,” Gregor said in a news release. “Eugene, Steve, and Shawn have done an amazing job taking their business from where it began to here, building a top-tier firm.”
Gregor added, “By joining Summit and gaining access to all of our wealth management, technology, and business resources, we’re excited to see Signet achieve even greater heights.”
“We are thrilled to join Summit to take our firm to the next level,” Yashin said in the news release. “Our collaboration enables us to further enhance our top-tier service offerings, helping us meet the evolving needs of clients who rely on Signet to help them achieve their financial and life goals.”
“For many advisors, the challenge is how to grow without signing away their legacy or incurring the expense of building out the required infrastructure from scratch,” Keith Soltis, Chief Business Development Officer at Summit, said in the release. “Summit’s partnership approach enables advisors to remain entrepreneurs while tapping into the growth resources of a national firm.”
Merchant has partnered with over 130 firms in the wealth management industry to date, Summit noted. Signet first partnered with Merchant in February 2021 and, since then, the RIA increased client assets by over 40%.
Jeff Berman, Contributing Editor and Reporter at Wealth Solutions Report, can be reached at jeff.berman@wealthsolutionsreport.com.
