Focus loses another exec

A former Focus Financial Partners executive — who was brought on in April 2013 to help the aggregator recruit elite wirehouse breakaways — has left the firm to join a registered investment adviser, according to SEC registration records. Mark Hovanic, who worked as a complex and branch manager for Morgan Stanley Smith Barney and UBS Wealth Management before joining Focus, has moved to Consolidated Portfolio Review in Zion Crossroads, Va., according to SEC records. The firm, which operates under the umbrella of parent company 3 Dimensional Wealth Advisory in Locust Valley, N.Y., has $169 million in assets under management, according to its most recent ADV filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Mr. Hovanic, who will be president of the firm, did not return requests for comment. A Focus Financial Partners spokeswoman, Raina Gajjar, said executives at Focus were traveling and unavailable to comment on whether a replacement had been named. Since its founding in 2006, Focus has become one of the largest aggregator firms for RIAs, with around 33 partner firms. Mr. Hovanic's departure follows other recent moves in Focus' executive ranks, including the departure of two other managing directors. Michael Paley left to become chief operating officer at a New York-based investment adviser, Klingman & Associates, and Richard Gill joined another aggregator, AMG Wealth Partners. Around the same time, in June, Focus hired Chris Dupuy, a former Bank of America Merrill Lynch executive who led the Pacific Northwest market, to lead the team focused on recruiting veteran wirehouse advisers.