Arkadios lands two more teams with $600M from its onetime brokerage

Fast-growing midsize independent wealth management firm Arkadios Capital added two teams departing from Osaic's Triad Advisors with a combined $600 million in client assets.

David Frank and Jonathan Lindvig of Atlanta-based Peachtree Wealth Advisors and Steve Lichtblau, Mike Walling and Christopher Gee of Scottsdale, Arizona-based RBG Capital dropped Triad for Atlanta-based Arkadios, the firms said Dec. 13. Annual revenue at Arkadios jumped 30% to $79.1 million in 2022 for the second highest rate of expansion in the independent brokerage channel, according to Financial Planning's IBD Elite study. 

The recruitment of Peachtree and RBG came after similar moves by other teams that have opted to leave Triad for a firm launched in 2016 by financial advisors who had themselves left Advisor Group, which is Osaic's former name. That activity is helping to enlarge the footprint of Arkadios as a midsize firm competing against giants that keep getting bigger each year. In an interview, Lichtblau echoed other former Triad advisors who say that they balked at remaining through the transition of the firm's pending consolidation of eight brokerages into one under the private equity owner that purchased Advisor Group in 2019, Reverence Capital Partners.

"It changed the world. They went from 500 reps like us to 11 or 12,000. If we didn't fit into their square hole with our round peg, they really didn't have a lot of time for us," Lichtblau said. "Arkadios immediately made us feel very comfortable. … Our expectations are that we will get the service that we expect for us and, more importantly, for our clients. And we're looking forward to a long-lasting relationship."

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Osaic has taken steps to avoid disruption during the combination of the brokerages, and the firm is seeking to ramp up its support and recruiting for registered investment advisory firms and hybrid practices that have brokerage affiliations through appointments like that of Ed Swenson this summer. Swenson joined Osaic as the executive vice president of RIA solutions from Dynasty Financial Partners, where he was a co-founder of the firm and led its operations, technology, human resources, turnkey asset management and other investment capabilities.

Representatives for Osaic declined to comment on the departures of Peachtree and RBG.

Many advisors "want to be at a privately held firm where they know the owners of the company," recruiter Jodie Papike, the CEO of Cross-Search, said in an interview. With giants like Osaic, LPL Financial, Raymond James, Cetera Financial Group and others dominating the independent channels, smaller firms can stand out by serving a specific niche of advisors and offering greater flexibility, according to Papike.

"It is hard for midsize firms to compete, just because of the sheer amount of transition money that's being thrown around," she said. "Being at a midsize firm, you're going to know everyone and they're going to know you. There are plenty of advisors still out there who make that their top priority."

Lichtblau and Walling have known Nate Stibbs, a former Triad executive who became director of corporate strategy for Arkadios earlier this year, for about a decade and a half, Stibbs noted in an interview. RBG gives Arkadios its first anchor location in the southwest with "significant potential for long-term growth" organically and through recruiting and acquisitions, he said. Arkadios currently has 160 advisors in 42 offices with $9 billion in client assets.

"I've never been more excited about where the industry is going. We love the fact that private equity is taking everything over. That creates a lot of opportunity for Arkadios," Stibbs said. "At the end of the day, they want a partner that they won't outgrow."

Frank and Lindvig of Peachtree formally switched their brokerage to Arkadios on Oct. 2 but kept their advisory affiliation with their own RIA, according to FINRA BrokerCheck records. In addition to the partners, the firm's team includes Client Relationship Manager Ivie Sloman. Lindvig had been with Triad since 2004, while Frank's tenure dated back to 2006. The practice manages $325 million in client assets.

"As we approach our 20th anniversary, our partnership with Arkadios Capital will provide our team and clients access to innovative tools, resources and investment opportunities for the next 20 years," Lindvig said in a statement.

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The RBG team led by Lichtblau, a 38-year industry veteran, moved to Triad in 2009 and previously operated under the name R.B. Gold with Lichtblau's late business partner, Roy Schieffer, who died in 2021. Lichtblau is director of wealth management, Walling is director of corporate finance and Gee is chief investment officer. In addition, advisor Tyler Walling is its vice president of wealth management, Tim Sperling is the vice president of business development and Sreeya Bhupathiraju and Lauren Stevens are respectively an analyst and marketing lead on RBG's investment banking team. RBG, which has $275 million in client assets, moved to Arkadios and its corporate RIA officially on Nov. 8, FINRA BrokerCheck shows.

Besides its roughly 90 direct wealth management client households, RBG works with businesses on services such as employee stock ownership plans and M&A deals ranging from $8 million or $9 million to $130 million in enterprise values and in industries that span "everything from the funeral industry to very sophisticated software companies," Lichtblau noted. 

Arkadios also displays the "flexibility to meet client needs for specialty products," which is "hard to find out in the market in general," he said.

"We create portfolios tailored to the specific needs of the clients, but we've done it for scale," Lichtblau said. "We're really looking forward to the growth potential that we have now with Arkadios."