Ironclad deal: Savant hooks up with The Monitor Group in rare RIA merger

Bigger is increasingly becoming better in the world of large registered investment advisory firms. The latest example of the trend: on Wednesday, two sizable RIAs announced they were merging and, combined, will manage more than $2.5 billion in assets. Savant Capital Management, with $2.05 billion in assets, and The Monitor Group, with $461 million, said in a statement that the two are tying up for strategic advantage. Both are independent, fee-only registered investment advisers. The new firm will be called Savant Capital LLC. The move puts Savant among the top 50 largest RIAs in terms of total assets under management, according to InvestmentNews rankings. RELATED ITEM Latest RIA rankings While M&A activity among RIAs and wealth managers has been strong for more than a year, the great majority of such acquisition has been done by private equity managers or “roll up” organizations. Combinations of two RIAs have been rare. “Each firm has successfully grown organically — one client at a time — during the course of the past several years,” said Thomas Muldowney, chairman of Savant Capital Management. "Joining forces provides a new avenue of growth for both our organizations, and we will continue to keep our strategic growth options open.” “Our combination is the culmination of a multi-year strategy to develop into a firm that will remain in existence for many years while maintaining its cutting-edge approach to wealth management,” said Glenn Kautt, president and chairman of The Monitor Group. The firm will have 10 offices in four states: Illinois, Wisconsin, Virginia., and Florida. Headquarters for the RIA will be in Rockford, Ill., where Savant Capital is based. Savant currently ranks as the 60th largest fee-only RIA in the InvestmentNews RIA Data Center. The Monitor Group currently ranks as the 327th largest fee-only RIA overall and the 10th largest fee-only RIA in Virginia, according to InvestmentNews data.