MAI Capital Management and &Partners have each added new advisory teams to their growing national platforms, reflecting the continued trend of consolidation among large US RIAs.
Cleveland-based MAI Capital Management announced the acquisition of Summit Financial Advisors, a San Mateo, California firm co-founded by Rafael Velez in 1998.
Summit, which manages approximately $570 million in client assets, is known for its work with high-tech executives and entrepreneurs, particularly around equity-based compensation, concentrated stock portfolios, and complex tax strategies.
The full Summit team will remain in place, with Velez taking on a regional president and senior managing director role at MAI.
“From the outset, our mission has been to serve as a single resource for comprehensive wealth management while cultivating deep, long-lasting client relationships,” Velez said in the announcement on Monday.
He added that joining MAI will allow the team to “provide our clients with enhanced resources and capabilities while maintaining the personalized service and fiduciary commitment that have guided our firm for over 27 years.”
MAI, founded in 1973 by Arnold Palmer and Mark McCormack and led by CEO Rick Buoncore, has grown to more than $60 billion in assets under management following its recent mega-merger deal with Evoke Advisors.
In 2021, Galway Holdings – a financial services distribution company, which at the time was backed by private equity firms Carlyle Group, Oak Hill Capital, and Harvest Partners – took a stake in MAI.
Meanwhile, &Partners has welcomed Forge Point Advisors, a Pennsylvania-based practice with $600 million in pre-transition assets under management.
The team, led by David Gunter and Steve Uzonyi, is based in Oil City and serves families across western Pennsylvania and beyond.
Beyond its leadership, the group includes Alex Gunter, financial advisor; Lori Burchfield, office manager and senior client service associate; and Eileen Douglas, senior client service associate.
Forge Point Advisors is described as offering a comprehensive approach to financial planning, with a mission focused on “financial strength designed to endure through every stage.”
The move in Pennsylvania comes after &Partners added $520 million RIA Lumitas Wealth Strategies in Minnesota in August, Shortly after which it onboarded a breakaway team from Wells Fargo, who formed their own independent practice in Virginia.
As of August 31, &Partners reported $38 billion in client assets and more than 90 advisor teams. The hybrid RIA co-founded by David Kowach – who at one time was the CEO at Wells Fargo Advisors – plans to hit as much as $50 billion in client assets by the end of the year, with a strategy that hinges heavily on equity-focused compensation for the advisors it attracts.
"When we complete our five-year plan and we've recruited the advisors we want to recruit, advisors will be the single largest group of shareholders within our firm," Kristi Mitchem, who launched &Partners alongside her fellow former Wells Fargo leaders Kowach and John Alexander, intimated to InvestmentNews in a June interview.
LPL Financial and Raymond James also add independent advisors from Osaic and Edward Jones in Michigan and Arizona.
The SEC-registered RIA advises on more than $1 billion in client assets, with no advisory fee through 2027 and no human financial advisors.
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