Diversify scores fourth 2024 acquisition with $645M firm

Ryan Smith, co-founder and CEO of Diversify Advisor Network

The Delaware-based fee-only practice, led by a veteran with 25 years of experience, is joining the RIA’s partner platform.

Diversify Advisor Network announced its fourth acquisition of the year, welcoming Key Advisors Wealth Management into its fold. The Delaware-based, fee-only firm brings $645 million in assets under management to Diversify’s partner platform.

Founded in 2000 by Eddie Ghabour and Doug Ferris, Key Advisors saw Ferris retire at the end of 2021, leaving Ghabour as the sole owner.

Ghabour and his team, who initially joined Diversify in 2022 under its independent platform, Diversify Advisory Services, will now transition to Diversify Wealth Management, the partner platform of Diversify. This move not only grants Ghabour equity in Diversify but also positions him in a pivotal leadership role within the expanding organization.

Ryan Smith, co-founder and CEO of Diversify, highlighted the partnership’s alignment with the firm’s strategic vision.

“The industry needs to create more aligned partnership solutions for advisors,” Smith said in a statement Thursday.

“Part of the design for our Partner Platform was to allow our independent advisors an affiliation model in which they could monetize their practice, plan for clear succession, and take an equity position alongside our founders,” he said.

Launched in January as a W-2 employee-affiliation RIA, Diversify Wealth Management is the partner platform of the Diversify Advisor Network, which also includes Diversify Advisory Services and DFPG Investments.

The Diversify Advisor Network, which was officially formed in December, currently boasts approximately $7 billion in total assets.

Ghabour, a 25-year veteran of the industry, called the decision to join Diversify’s partner platform “the right move for Key.

“[W]e will be able to not only retain the autonomy to run our business and serve our clients as we believe best but also take advantage of the synergies and scale that come from being more fully integrated with Diversify,” he said.