Rather strikingly at a time when many wealth management firms, including MFOs, have gone down the M&A route, this new player makes it clear that it is totally owned by its founders and is not interested in acquisitions.

A freshly-launched New York-headquartered RIA, Five Eleven Partners, has been structured as a “full-service family office.” And it is establishing itself as a business that is owned by its founding partners.

No outside capital is involved and the firm isn’t interested in acquisitions, it has told Family Wealth Report.

Led by founder and managing partner Andrew Crofton and co-founder and MP, Scott Essex, it has a presence in Chicago, San Francisco and Palm Beach. Team members and clients are in those locations.

The organization said it gives clients access to investments including private deals and alternative assets. This work is led by chief investment officer Gil Calderon. Essex will manage the private investment offerings; the chief wealth strategist is Keith Feinberg.

Client advisor and tax planning specialist Shawn Young and director of investments Matthew Machucki have joined the Five Eleven team. 

"I decided to launch Five Eleven Partners when I observed the increasing trend toward firm growth driven by mergers and acquisitions," Crofton said in a statement issued by the firm. "Wealthy families deserve an intimate, single family office experience. Our goal is to grow intentionally alongside the right families, ensuring that our focus remains squarely on our clients' growth, rather than on expanding the firm itself."

Services include investment advisory; tax, estate planning; wealth advisory (non-investment services, such as legacy planning, cashflow planning and philanthropic oversight; family office administration;) and private investments.

Strikingly, at a time when wealth sector M&A and consolidation has been a big theme, with the likes of Pathstone and AITi Tiedemann Group, for example, taking this route as part of their growth (as well as via organic routes), the Five Eleven Partners business is not interested in making deals.

“We intend to grow organically, thoughtfully and intentionally with the right families over time. We have no intentions of being acquisitive,” the firm told FWR when asked for details. “Organic growth has been eclipsed by inorganic growth by M&A. To grow organically, a firm now must be intentionally structured for this type of growth.”

“Our firm serves families of significant wealth with specific resources and team members who are uniquely qualified to solve their complex challenges. The investment landscape is rapidly evolving, and private investment access and expertise is critical,” it continued. “Tax advisory along with multi-generational estate and financial planning are a must for any family of great wealth. We have assembled an in-house team to meet these needs. Typically, one would expect to see this structure in a single-family office setting. We are intentionally providing that experience to our clients,” it continued. 

“There are few firms out there that are built from the ground up for ultra-high net worth families and it requires specific knowledge and resources to serve them. We are not structured for scaled growth of our firm but rather, Five Eleven Partners is built to focus on the growth of our clients,” it said. 

The team
Before establishing this firm, Crofton was MD of Klingenstein Fields Advisors, working with UHNW families and individuals; before this, he was senior wealth director at BNY Mellon, and worked at JP Morgan.

Essex has been a partner and co-head of global private debt at Partners Group; he is also an external member of the BlueEarth Capital investment committee and serves on boards of CapitalSpring Finance Company, Diversified Maintenance Systems and The Teagle Foundation; Calderon has been CIO at M4 Capital Management, a single-family office in Chicago; Feinberg has served as chief operating officer and chief wealth strategist at Seven Mile Advisory, a multi-family office. Machucki, who previously set up Craft Consulting, working with startups and small firms, has a background in equity research; Young was previously the chief financial officer of a SFO in San Francisco, and worked as head of single-family office work at Kauman Rossin Fund Services, and was controller at Passport Capital.