Captrust takes a big bite out of Texas with latest deal

Captrust Financial Advisors has acquired Covenant Multifamily Offices, a Texas-based wealth management firm with more than $2.6 billion in client assets.

Covenant, which will be renamed Captrust, has offices in San Antonio, Dallas, and Boerne, Texas, as well as Oklahoma City. Founded in 2010, Covenant becomes the 52nd firm to join Captrust since 2006.

Daniel Seivert, chief executive of Echelon Partners, described Texas as “fertile ground for buyers in the past two years. So much so, that certain firms have initiatives targeting the state.”

In 2019, Captrust acquired San Antonio-based South Texas Money Management, and in June 2020 the company partnered with private equity backers, further boosting its acquisition potential.

“The goal of most buyers is to gain scale in some of the larger metropolitan areas in the state and then recruit and close more deals,” Seivert added.

Rush Benton, Captrust senior director of strategic growth, said Texas has become a growth engine for the aggregator that oversees more than $70 billion in assets under management and more than $630 billion in assets under advisement.

“Over the past two years, we have seen tremendous growth in our Texas presence, particularly in the wealth management space,” he said. “We now have nearly 100 employees in the state across nine offices.”

The latest Captrust deal extends a trend of record level consolidation across the wealth management industry.

According to Echelon’s recently released report, the pace of acquisitions in the registered investment adviser space through the first nine months of 2021 has already exceeded the record 205 deals for all of 2020.

With 208 deals already announced through September of this year, Seivert is forecasting 2021 to finish with a record-shattering 287 acquisitions.

Covenant is in many ways a classic example of the merger and acquisition trend sweeping across wealth management, having fueled much of its growth inorganically.

“While we had previously been on the other side of the table, adding four firms since 2012, we knew that joining Captrust was the right next step for Covenant when we saw the alignment of our two cultures, which both focus on serving our clients, colleagues and communities,” said founder and managing director John Eadie.

“We’re excited to bring the advantages of Captrust’s resources to our clients, which will enhance our high-touch, boutique-client service model,” he added.