Mercer Advisors, one of the most active acquirers in wealth management, snapped up a firm with $5 billion in client assets, the latest signal of the industry's ongoing momentum in recruiting and M&A deals.
Mercer, which is majority owned by private equity firms Oak Hill Capital and Genstar Capital, acquired Regis Management, a Menlo Park, California-based registered investment advisor that caters to ultrahigh net worth clients andalso manages its own funds and portfolio models, the firms
Financial advisor movement through recruiting and
"The conversations came out of discussions that we had with our clients and our employees. This whole process was driven by trying to provide our clients with a broader set of capabilities," Burlinson said in an interview. "I wanted to give my clients the integrated family office experience, but I also wanted to give my employees the chance to be a part of a team that was growing, because we're competing for talent."
The flow of advisor moves reflects that fierce struggle for talent. This week alone,
"The supply of willing buyers and sellers remains more than ample as entrepreneurs continue to look to M&A as a key component of their long term succession plans and as prominent strategic acquirers remain eager to complete deals despite broader economic volatility," according to the firm's third-quarter deal analysis.
Advisors joining RIA service provider tru Independence are charting a different course by maintaining ownership of their practices as they use the company's platform, according to President Amit Dogra. By adding $1 billion in client assets to the platform in 2022, including those from its latest recruits from Coral Gables, Florida-based Invenio Wealth Partners, tru has reached 32 teams with about 75 advisors and $9 billion overall, Dogra said in an interview. At the moment, though, it's not making any M&A deals.
"There are so many people out there with big checks. What we want is the right strategic partners," Dogra said. "That is something we'll consider pursuing in 2023."
Similarly, New York-based Ritholtz Wealth Management has topped $2.7 billion in client assets under chairman Barry Ritholtz and CEO Josh Brown through recruiting and organic expansion , not through acquisitions, Brown said in an interview. Earlier this month, the RIA
"If we were to acquire some other firm, we don't know what the advisor's been saying to those clients, we don't know what their investment strategy is," Brown said. "That would be the equivalent of just cold-calling people and trying to explain to them our investment philosophy from scratch after they've been told something else for 10 years or 20 years. So we're just not really interested in doing that."
Other firms are rolling up into larger wealth management companies that they say give them greater scale by taking administrative and operational tasks off their plate so they can focus more on clients. Burlinson's firm Regis launched in 2000 with the idea of working with endowments in a similar approach to the Yale Investments Office, he said. Over time, it began working with clients "from the ecosystem of growth and innovation in Silicon Valley" through alternative investments in private equity and venture capital funds, Burlinson said.
Under the leadership team of Burlinson, President Peter Gifford, and partners Stephen Donahue, Matthew Krensky and Steven Go, the firm's clients have migrated to cities like Austin, Miami, New York and Los Angeles. Regis provides "global, diversified asset allocation models" through separately managed accounts and manages "a broadly diversified portfolio of global equity and fixed income investments" called the Regis Partners Fund, according to its SEC Form ADV brochure. The Mercer deal displays the firm's emphasis on planning, Burlinson said.
"People care greatly about financial planning and estate planning and tax planning," he said. "The investment plan has to serve those needs, rather than vice versa. I used to think that generating alpha was everything, and now I realize that each family has unique needs."
