The latest corporate transactions, mergers, acquisitions and related developments in North American wealth management.

Simon Quick Advisors, Red Hook Management
Simon Quick Advisors, a US wealth firm based in New Jersey with offices in Denver, Chattanooga and New York, has merged with fellow Morristown RIA firm Red Hook Management. 

This deal follows Simon Quick’s merger with the William E Simon & Sons family office in 2017.

The leadership and advisory staff of Red Hook Management will join Simon Quick, bringing the combined entity to 68 total employees and about $5 billion in assets under management. 

“In the deal-making frenzy that has hit the independent advice space, we’ve remained selective on partnerships. Our focus has been on opportunities to partner with advisory firms where the people share our values and commitment to providing personalized wealth management services to a sophisticated clientele. The incoming team will benefit from the resources and infrastructure we have built to optimize the mutual success of our advisors and clients,” Mark DeLotto, managing partner at Simon Quick, said.

DeLotto was referring to a busy period of M&A activity in the North American wealth management industry that has been particularly active for RIAs and, to a lesser extent, multi-family offices. The trend has been driven by a desire from buyers for economies of scale to handle rising technology and regulatory costs, while many sellers are people nearing retirement, or wishing to partner with others to improve service and pay for system upgrades.

Tom Trynin, president of Red Hook and incoming partner at Simon Quick, said that Simon Quick’s proprietary technology, SQ CORE™, and dedicated business functions such as investment research and marketing, made the opportunity of working together compelling.

Gladstone Associates facilitated the M&A search process, ECHELON Partners provided buy-side investment banking services, and Lowenstein Sandler provided legal services. 

Stephens, CRUX Asset Management
Stephens, the US privately held financial services firm, has agreed to take a minority stake in the UK’s CRUX Asset Management, an active equity investment management business.

The proposed transaction will result in Stephens holding about 20 per cent of CRUX’s share capital and new ordinary shares will be issued to support the deal. Established in 2014, CRUX has £1.7 billion assets under management.

John Stephens, senior vice president with Stephens’ affiliate Stephens Inc, will join the CRUX board as a non-executive director once the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority has cleared the transaction.

Based in Little Rock, Arkansas, Stephens concentrates on family investments, private equity, asset management investment banking, wealth management, public finance and insurance brokerage. Stephens, which has other locations with a European practice in the UK and Germany, was founded in 1933.

“Over the last five years, we have built a scalable platform at CRUX that has enabled us to expand our investment offering into Asia and the UK with complementary strategies that fit our plans to build a diversified range of active management strategies,” Karen Zachary, CEO at CRUX, said.

In September 2021, CRUX hired Ewan Markson-Brown and Damian Taylor, two Asia equity fund managers, to build out its Asia equity franchise. In March 2022 CRUX formed a strategic partnership with Geneva-based Union Bancaire Privée to advise UBP on its Asia equity funds and mandates. In addition, UBP will provide investors in Asia with exclusive access to CRUX’s alpha-generating equity products.

CRUX was founded in 2014, and its teams focus on Europe, the UK and Asia.