Bellatore makes first asset acquisition

A new financial services firm focused on advisers, Bellatore Financial Inc. of San Jose, Calif., said this morning it had reached an agreement to make its first acquisition of advisory assets. Bellatore said it will purchase $540 million in assets from Nationwide Investment Advisors LLC of Columbus, Ohio. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Bellatore provides practice management support and a turnkey asset management program to advisers. At the moment, it has about 15 registered investment adviser clients and is nearing about $100 million in assets. Al Steele, Bellatore’s president and chief executive, said he expects to make more deals soon. “We’re a strategic buyer, and hope to get three or four deals and get $2 billion in assets,” he said. Mr. Bellatore acknowledged that the market for buying advisory firms or their assets has slowed since last year. “My sense is that the market is soft,” he said. “The valuations are off a little bit from what they were last year.”