Dynasty and Diamond Consultants team up to guide top-dollar breakaway advisors

Dynasty Financial Partners and Diamond Consultants have announced a new partnership aimed at supporting large advisor teams considering a move away from traditional wirehouses and broker-dealers.

The Breakaway Investment Banking Initiative, launched this week, is designed to help teams managing $1 billion or more in assets as they weigh options such as going independent, joining another firm, selling, merging, or raising growth capital.

The initiative brings together expertise from Dynasty’s investment banking business, which it launched in 2023, and Diamond’s long-standing advisor consulting and recruiting network.

According to the firms, the offering is intended to address the growing complexity facing top advisor teams as they navigate a marketplace with more strategic options – and higher stakes – than ever before.

Shirl Penney, founder and chief executive officer of Dynasty Financial Partners, said in a statement that the firm sees a “growing need for investment banking services from large, sophisticated teams looking to evaluate their strategic options versus taking a recruiting check from a wirehouse or accepting a buyout offer.”

He added that Dynasty is “uniquely positioned to help [advisors] professionalize, operationalize and de-risk their businesses sooner.”

Dynasty Investment Bank said it advised on 15 M&A and capital-raising deals in 2024, including cross-border public company transactions and domestic sell-side deals. The bank provides services such as merger and acquisition advice, capital raising, valuations, and succession planning for both wealth and asset management firms.

Diamond Consultants, meanwhile, claims a track record of transitioning over $400 billion in assets under management over the past decade. The firm’s network includes hundreds of advisor teams and wealth management firms, and its process is designed to help clients evaluate a range of strategic options.

The partnership comes at a time when the breakaway advisor market is seeing significant movement. Cerulli estimates as of 2022, $2.3 trillion in assets were in play from advisors leaving wirehouses, national and regional broker-dealers, insurance broker-dealers, and retail banks.

More recent Cerulli survey data from 2024 suggest that among employee advisors who prefer independence, 35% want to start a new independent practice with other advisors, while only 9% are interested in joining an existing practice as an employee. Focusing on wirehouse advisors, 33% said they would prefer joining an existing independent practice as a partial owner or principal, while another 57% leaned toward starting a new independent practice, either solo or alongside other advisors.

Industry observers note that the trend toward independence is being driven by both the lure of greater autonomy and the growing number of capital partners interested in the space. As private equity sponsors and PE-backed RIAs become more active, breakaway advisor teams have more opportunities – but also face more complex decisions – when considering their next move.

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Louis Diamond, who stepped up as chief executive officer of Diamond Consultants in May, said the new offering addresses a gap in the market.

“Boutique investment banks are adept at helping RIAs with transactions, but no one was guiding elite advisor teams through the more fundamental decision of what they actually want to do next,” he said. “Our mission is to deliver objective, strategic advice across all paths – not just one.”