While large swaths of people across the wealth industry are winding down for the holidays, the RIA deal machine is not quite shut down yet, with Wealth Enhancement, Mercer Advisors, and AssetMark each announcing progress in their acquisition strategies.
Minneapolis-based Wealth Enhancement said it bought Spectrum Wealth Management, an Irvine, California RIA, along with its affiliated tax practice, Putman Group.
The team, which includes one lead advisor, 14 financial professionals and five support staff, oversees more than $182 million in client assets and is led by founder and principal Benjamin Ross Putman, along with tax leaders Sanaz Afshar, Joseph Reese and Allan Ottens.
The transaction lifts Wealth Enhancement’s client advisory, trust and brokerage assets to more than $131.2 billion.
Spectrum was launched in 2002 to pair holistic wealth management with an in-house tax practice, building on Putman Group, which dates back to 1991. The firm works with business owners and high net worth households on financial and tax planning, risk management and investment management, with an emphasis on viewing clients’ finances as an integrated whole. Wealth Enhancement chief executive Jeff Dekko called Spectrum “an impressive and highly credentialed team” and said the buyer is “particularly excited about their deep specialization in tax planning, which is a critical component of our integrated wealth management model.”
Putman framed the deal as a way to expand the firm’s existing promise to clients rather than a shift in direction. “We strive to help our clients prosper so they can ‘Aspire and Live Life’ to the fullest,” he said.
Last week, Wealth Enhancement announced a splashy move in Ohio with the acquistion of L.M. Kohn & Company, a $2.2 billion hybrid RIA.
Not to be outdone, mega-RIA Mercer Advisors announced it is acquiring McConnell Financial Advisors, a Boise firm with about $130 million in assets under management and a growing base in Sun Valley.
The boutique practice, led by founder and chief executive Renée McConnell, is known for its “Life by Design” planning framework and a strong emphasis on serving women, even as it works with a broader mix of clients at different stages of life.
Mercer Advisors, which reports $90 billion in client assets, said the deal deepens its Boise and Sun Valley footprint and fits into a broader regional buildout strategy.
McConnell said in the announcement that “a financial plan is more than just numbers, it’s the foundation for a life you’ll cherish,” and that she was looking for a partner that believed in doing the right thing for clients. She said Mercer Advisors stood out for its planning expertise, culture and ability to “help us scale our impact without losing what makes us special.”
Mercer Advisors' M&A strategy has seen it welcome more than 20 women-led partner firms to date, including Family Wealth Planning Group in Florida and O’Brien Wealth Partners in Massachusetts.
AssetMark said it has closed its purchase of Efficient Advisors, an RIA platform with $3 billion in client assets, from Fiduciary Services Group.
Under the deal first announced in October, the roughly 200 advisory firms that use Efficient Advisors will move onto AssetMark’s wealth management platform, gaining access to services such as self-directed brokerage, tax management tools and a broader investment lineup.
AssetMark, which serves more than 10,500 advisors and 318,000 investor households and reports over $158 billion in platform assets, said the deal adds a seasoned network of advisory firms with deep client relationships as it presses further into the RIA channel.
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