Breakaway RIA grows to more than $1B AUM, buys out investor in under five years

An Arkansas RIA led by two former advisors from Stephens, Inc. have reached a milestone in their independent firm, as they buy back a minority stake held by an initial investor.

It’s been just over five years since Phillip Worthen founded Naviter Wealth in Little Rock, leveraging his 25 years of experience including 13 in wealth management at Stephens, where he worked with Bentley Blackmon who joined Naviter as CEO two months later with 17 years at Stephens and seven at Morgan Stanley under his belt.

Since then, the duo has led the firm to more than $1 billion AUM, acquired Echelon Wealth Advisors in 2023, and now has acquired the minority stake of Wealth Advisor Growth Network, founded by John Phoenix and Jay Hummel, which helped establish Naviter.

"The WAGN team was critical to us in the early stages of our launch," said Blackmon, "As a strategic and capital partner, John and Jay helped us quickly identify and implement the compliance, legal, marketing, technical, and back-office support we needed for a successful start."

"This is a pivotal milestone for Naviter Wealth, as through this transaction, our management team increases their ownership and advances into a larger role driving the continued growth of the firm as its future leaders," added Worthen, who is the firm’s president. 

Naviter Wealth has also created Naviter Trust to help wealthy families grow and protect their fortunes, collaborated with Frost, PLLC Certified Public Accountants to offer clients proactive tax planning services, and launched an affiliate program with other professions for mutual benefit.

The firm’s strong growth comes as no surprise to John Phoenix, WAGN partner, and the two firms continue to share other business interests.

"We knew from the beginning that Naviter Wealth would evolve into a highly successful RIA free from the limitations of the broker-dealer world. WAGN was created to help teams like Naviter achieve total independence," Phoenix said. "We have seen firms struggle to buy back ownership from their initial investors; by agreeing to sell our minority position to the team at Naviter, we set ourselves apart from other institutional investors in the space."