LPL Financial's largest affiliated branch office, Private Advisor Group, said on Friday that Merchant Investment Management had taken a non-controlling minority stake in the firm.
Merchant Investment Management is a private partnership that invests in growth companies and other opportunities. According to its website, Merchant Investment Management this year has focused on investing in the wealth management industry.
It is the first outside investor for Private Advisor Group, which is based in Morristown, New Jersey, and has about 700 financial advisers with $30 billion in client assets. The firm recently has been ranked by Barron's newspaper as a top ten RIA in the country.
It's yet another deal involving an industry leader as the hyper busy mergers and acquisitions market of 2021 draws to a close.
Terms of the deal were not released, but the firm's CEO, Robert "R.J." Moore, said in an interview Tuesday morning that Merchant was not buying existing shares from partners, but investing growth capital into the firm.
That makes this type of investment different from private equity buyers, Moore said.
"Merchant is a direct investor with a long-term horizon," Moore said. "This is expanding our capital base. There is no preferred stock or convertible preferred shares, like you often see in a private equity deal."
It's been a busy year for Private Advisor Group. Late last year, it said it had hired industry veteran Moore to be CEO and this spring it opened its own broker-dealer, PAG Financial.
Industry veterans John Hyland and Patrick Sullivan opened Private Advisor Group in 2010.
The firm's CFO and EVP of Wealth Management Solutions are the latest executives to exit the broker-dealer.
Clients are saying they would consider switching advisors if another professional offered estate planning services, according to a new Trust & Will survey.
CEO Laurel Taylor says the fintech's composable AI stack helps workers optimize dollars across Trump Accounts, 529s, 401(k)s, and other employee benefits.
The bank has swiped three private banking veterans from BNY as the city climbs the ranks of America's fastest-growing wealth hubs.
Employee accounts, crypto trials and job cuts frame a pivotal year for the Swiss lender.
Dan Biagini of American Equity says the steady decline of pensions, longer lifespans and a reset in interest rates are rewriting how advisors build retirement income
Direct indexing is on pace to outgrow ETFs and mutual funds. Northern Trust's Ken Lassner explains why the advisors who get it wish they had started sooner.
