The world of wealth management M&A continues expanding as both buyers and sellers come to market in greater numbers, leading to unfulfilled demand. Several small boutique M&A firms with experienced management launched to fill the gap. The increase in available options makes the process of choosing the right M&A firm more complex. This week, I address the rise of the boutique M&A firm in my quarterly M&A review.
In addition, Sid Yenamandra’s monthly Regtech Surge column addresses vendor lock-in, Axtella unpacks BD tools that advisors often overlook, and we bring you our weekly Deals & Recruiting Roundup, a roundup of the major announcements from Future Proof, Axos on servant leadership, EP Wealth’s $1.1 billion acquisition, Wealth.com’s funding round led by Alphabet’s VC subsidiary, Noreen Beaman’s take on advisor coaching and consulting, Cerulli’s data showing affluent clients are more willing to pay for advice, Invest in Others’ award winners and Sanctuary’s $2.2 billion recruit.
Deals & Recruiting Roundup: This edition covers EP Wealth Advisors acquiring CornerCap Investment Counsel, Cerity Partners merging with Touchdown Ventures, True North Advisors acquiring Clear Rock Advisors, Sanctuary Wealth recruiting Centel Wealth Advisory, LPL recruiting two teams and opening a new office, Cetera adding two advisors to North Ridge Wealth Planning, Kestra recruiting Erudite Wealth Management and SZC Financial, Equitable Advisors recruiting four advisors, TAG Intel offering geopolitical insights to advisors, Moneta hiring Peter Brown to co-lead its M&A efforts and RBC recruiting a $2.8 billion team from UBS.
Boutique M&A: I explore the proliferation, business models and future prospects of upstart boutique wealth management M&A firms. Read expert commentary from David DeVoe, Founder and CEO, DeVoe & Company; Jessica Polito, Founder and Principal, Turkey Hill Management; Cameron Stagg, Director of M&A, Signature Estate & Investment Advisors; Dan Newhall, Principal, Lone Willow Advisors; Aidan Walsh, Head of Corporate Development, AlphaCore Wealth Advisory; and Emily Blue and Ryan Halls, Co-Founders, Hue Partners.
Future Proof announcements: Matt Middleton, Founder and CEO of Future Proof, discusses what’s new at this year’s festival. In addition to its own new tech-enabled Breakthru offerings, onsite announcements included BNY expanding alternative investments access for advisors, an Orion advisor survey revealing the popularity of artificial intelligence, Envestnet demonstrating new platform features for RIAs and GV (Google Ventures) investing in Wealth.com.
Google’s capital: Wealth.com completed a $30 million funding round led by venture capital firm and Alphabet subsidiary GV (formerly Google Ventures), designed to enhance its AI-based estate planning capabilities. Wealth.com’s CEO and Co-Founder, Rafael Loureiro, and Elena Sakach, Partner at GV, provide comments.
Atlanta acquisition: EP Wealth Advisors acquired $1.1 billion Atlanta-based RIA CornerCap Investment Counsel. EP CEO Ryan Parker and CornerCap CEO Cannon Carr provide comments.
Overlooked advisor tools: John McClellan, Chief Risk and Business Officer at Axtella, explains that advisors are missing available opportunities from their BDs, and advises BDs on how to increase advisors’ uptake of these resources and services for the benefit of advisors and their affiliated BDs.
Servant leadership: David Crow, EVP and Head of Axos Clearing, describes the benefits to firms, advisors and employees of incorporating servant leadership into your culture.
Vendor lock-in: In this month’s Regtech Surge, Sid Yenamandra, Founder and CEO of Surge Ventures, addresses how to prevent and overcome vendor lock-in, when firms face difficulty moving to a new vendor.
Coaching and consulting: Noreen Beaman, Founder and Executive Coach at East Bay Executive Coaching & Consulting, describes the methods and benefits of coaching and consulting, and how her journey led to founding the firm.
Paid advice: Cerulli’s latest research indicates that affluent investors are increasingly willing to pay for financial advice, but reveals differences between men’s and women’s preferences. John McKenna, Research Analyst at Cerulli, provides comments.
Charitable awards: Invest in Others (IiO) announced its 18th annual Invest in Others Awards, honoring advisors engaged in philanthropy. IiO’s Executive Director, R. Barkley Payne, comments.
$2.2 billion recruit: Sanctuary Wealth recruited Connecticut-based Centel Wealth Advisory, with $2.2 billion in assets, to its network from Snowden Lane Partners. Sanctuary’s CEO, Adam Malamed, and President, Vince Fertitta, comment, along with Centel’s Stephen Fordyce.
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Larry Roth
CEO
Wealth Solutions Report