Merger Activity Helped Focus Financial Partners Add $2 Billion In 2014

Eliane Chavagnon

27 October 2014

Focus Financial Partners, the international partnership of independent wealth management firms, said it has added $2 billion in client assets through mergers this year and has executed over 60 mergers for its partner firms since launching in 2006.

The growth of a firm like Focus is a reflection of the so-called “breakaway” trend sweeping the US - something for which a number of players have cropped up to capitalize on. Click here for a recent feature on the topic.

“Mergers are an integral part of our value-added programs to our partners, providing them with access to Focus' M&A expertise and capital,” said Rudy Adolf, founder and chief executive at Focus Financial Partners. “Mergers are also a terrific opportunity to provide succession planning and continuity to many advisors in our industry.”

In the first half of 2014, Focus facilitated mergers for Atlas Private Wealth Management, Bridgewater Wealth & Financial Management, LVW Advisors, Sapient Private Wealth Management and Telemus Capital Partners. More recently, it has assisted with the following deals:

In Boston, The Colony Group, an RIA, joined forces with Long Wharf Investors in July. Colony has roughly tripled in size since joining the Focus partnership from $1.2 billion in 2011 to $3.70 billion today.
IFM Capital Advisors, a wealth management and consulting firm with offices in Denver, Fort Collins, CO, and Sioux Falls, SD, linked up with Don Graubert, founder of the Houston, TX-based RIA Post Oak Capital Advisors. IFM Capital was founded in January 2014 by former UBS advisors Tim Kneen and Clayton Hartman. Since then, the firm’s client assets have grown from $800 million to $1.3 billion.
GW & Wade, a Wellesley, MA-based partner firm with $5.1 billion in client assets welcomed Paul St Onge, an East Greenwich, RI-based sole practitioner with $150 million in client assets. St Onge entered into a Focus Successions agreement with GW & Wade to ensure continuity of service to his clients beyond his eventual retirement but then decided to accelerate the process by merging with GW & Wade.
HoyleCohen, a San Diego, CA-based RIA which partnered with Focus in 2006, added Chuck Ebersole, with $140 million in client assets in September. The move brought HoyleCohen’s total client assets to above $750 million and the firm now serves clients in both the Southern and Northern regions of California.
Milford, CT-based Beirne Wealth Consulting added Lise Robinson, formerly a wealth advisor at Oppenheimer & Co, in September.
This month, St Louis, MO-based Buckingham Asset Management added Hufford Advisors, an Indianapolis-based firm with approximately $400 million in client assets to its practice through an “intra-Focus” merger. Together with BAM Advisor Services, Buckingham manages or administers over $24 billion in client assets. The Hufford team, a member of the BAM alliance since 2012, provides specialist financial advice to dentists and other healthcare professionals.