Americana Partners launches family office group for UHNW clients

Americana Partners has formally launched a family office group, combining a California ultra-high-net-worth practice and an accounting firm it acquired into a new brand it plans to take nationwide.

The Houston-based registered investment adviser said the newly unveiled Americana Partners Family Office Group will be its dedicated multi-family office practice, which it plans to extend to clients across the country.

Matt Celenza, a managing director and partner whose team is based in Southern California, will lead the unit aimed at supporting entrepreneurs, business owners and executives with complex, multigenerational wealth.

Americana, which operates within the Dynasty Financial Partners network, reported more than $12.1 billion in total client assets as of Jan. 31.

In line with the broader wave of family offices rolling across the independent space, Americana is presenting the group as a single point of contact rather than a broader list of services. Under the model, the family office team acts as the client's central advisor, coordinating decisions on business ownership, liquidity events, taxes, estate planning, lending and philanthropy so families don't have to manage a roster of specialists on their own.

"People often assume that once you've accumulated significant wealth, the hard part is over. In reality, that's when the real complexity begins," Celenza said in a statement. "Many of our clients have spent decades building a business or creating extraordinary wealth, only to discover that their biggest challenge isn't generating returns – it's coordinating the many financial decisions involved in multi-generational planning."

Read more: Delivering Family Office Services for Mass Affluent Clients

Chief Executive Jason Fertitta, a founding partner of the firm, framed the launch as a direct response to how loosely the label is now used across the industry.

"As the term 'family office' has become more common across the wealth management industry, it's important to recognize that an effective family office model is defined by more than the breadth of services it offers," Fertitta said. "It requires a coordinated team that understands how every financial decision fits within a family's broader goals."

The family office group's roots go back to Americana's March 2025 purchase of Boulevard Family Wealth, which at the time marked the Texas-based RIA's first location outside its home state. Celenza founded the Los Angeles-area firm, which built investment, tax and estate strategies for clients with $100 million or more in investable assets.

The second piece arrived a year later in March, when Americana said it acquired NRT Consulting. Chris Ginsbach, Leah Primera and Katie Rossman founded the accounting and consulting firm in 2018. NRT handles accounting, bill pay and cash-flow forecasting for clients' operating businesses and personal holdings.

Read more: Keeping it in the family! More RIAs spinning off family offices

The past two years have been significant for Americana, which in October 2024 welcomed Lovell Minnick Partners as a majority share owner. That transaction, inked at a time when Americana reported $8.5 billion in assets, still left its founders and management team with significant ownership.

This year in March, Americana named Mike Mitchell as its chief financial officer, a role that placed him in charge of financial strategy and M&A. Mitchell was previously CFO of Merit Financial Advisors during a period in which that firm completed more than 30 M&A deals.

In July, Americana launched a sports and entertainment division led by associate vice president Ben Davidson. The division serves athletes, entertainers, creators, agents and coaches from the firm's Houston, Beverly Hills and Nashville offices.