The latest in wealth management mergers, acquisitions and other corporate actions in the North American industry.

Merchant, SWIG
Merchant Investment Management has bought a minority stake in Southwestern Investment Group, a firm operating with more than 60 advisors in Tennessee, Alabama, Texas, Iowa, and Nebraska.

Both management and advisors will participate in the ownership of SWIG.

“In our search for growth partners, Merchant stood out with its deep, practical understanding of capital structure and a team of experts that truly understands how financial advisors serve their clients and thrive as businesses,” Jeff Dobyns, chief executive of SWIG, said. “Merchant’s flexibility in approach to equity and debt capital and willingness to go the distance with us has been one-of-a-kind.”

Merchant is a private partnership providing growth capital, management resources, strategic and direction opportunities to independent financial services companies, particularly those focused on wealth and asset management.

SWIG oversees about $5.8 billion AuM – as of the end of 2021. It operates via the support of Raymond James Financial Services, Inc, SWIG’s securities platform. SWIG logged growth in AuM of about 34 per cent year-over-year from end of 2020 to end of 2021. It has been advised by Optima Group, Inc throughout the process.

The firm said it is slated to rebrand later in 2022.