The newly-launched business – capitalized with family office funding – operates as a partner with advisors, RIAs and others. As part of its operation, it has bought an outsourced chief investment office group.

Senior US wealth management figures and co-founders Jim Dickson (main picture) and Mark Penske (pictured below) yesterday said they were launching Elevation Point, a firm partnering with advisors and RIAs.

Mark Penske

Elevation Point launched via a funding round of capital from family offices, the firm said in a statement yesterday.

At the launch, Elevation Point said it had agreed to acquire Mount Yale Capital Group, a 20-year outsourced chief investment officer business with $3.4 billion in assets under management. The financial terms of the Mount Vale acquisition – scheduled to close this month – were not disclosed. 

John Sabre, who has served as chairman, CEO, and managing partner of Mount Yale since 2003, will join Elevation Point as executive chairman. 

Elevation Point says it is focused on accelerating partner firms’ growth and elevating their independence through strategic investments, ranging from minority to majority stakes, and providing access to its integrated services, solutions, technology and support.

“In an industry being disrupted daily through continuous aggregation; we are bucking the trend and providing acceleration support to our partners that will not require them to meet a certain timeline or alter their vision,” Dickson, who is also CEO of Elevation Point, said.

Sanctuary
No stranger to building wealth businesses, in 2018 Dickson founded Sanctuary Wealth as a supported platform for advisors seeking independence. The RIA now has more than $25 billion in assets and 76 partner firms in 28 states, as of 2023, the year that Dickson left the firm. Before Sanctuary, Dickson served as an executive at Merrill Lynch for 20 years. He began his career three decades ago as an accountant for Ernst and Young.

“Through the launch of Elevation Point and our acquisition of Mount Yale, we've combined the agility of a startup with the expertise of a renowned investment firm,” Mark Penske, founding partner and vice-chairman of Elevation Point, said.

Penske, is founder and chairman of United Atlantic Capital, a privately-owned financial services holding company headquartered in New York. UAC has participated in numerous transactions in the institutional and independent retail financial services industry.

Elevation Point says its “ideal” growth partners consist of two main groups: RIAs seeking to broaden their horizons, and wirehouse advisors striving for independence. 

Ambitions
The firm said its partnership growth model features strategic investments, starting with a minimum 20 per cent investment for independent firms, alongside access to its advisor support tools and services. It will also offer intellectual and financial support to partner firms seeking M&A opportunities, positioning them to capitalize on the “growing succession-planning crisis.”

Going forward, Elevation Point will launch Alt:62, an exclusive private investment network made up of partner firms, Elevation Point, and family offices from across the globe. 

"Launching exclusively with family office capital empowers us to pledge to our partners that we will not compromise our shared vision,” Dickson added. “With a leadership team already comprising some of the best in the industry, and with exciting updates on additional key industry leaders joining our ranks in the coming months, we are poised for rapid growth in the next year and beyond.”