Elevation Point banks on family office model to combat fee compression

Elevation Partners, a firm that invests minority stakes into RIAs and breakaway advisory teams to fuel their growth, is doubling-down on its commitment to family office capital with new investment from Emigrant Partners, announced this week.

Emigrant Partners operates under Emigrant Bank and Milstein Companies, a fourth-generation family-owned entity with a portfolio that includes real estate, banking, wealth services, and the sports industry. Former Sanctuary Wealth Group CEO Jim Dickson launched Elevation Partners in July 2024 with Mark Penske, who is the son of billionaire auto-racing team owner, Roger Penske.

While Dickson says that, “some day down the road, private equity may be our partner,” he explains the long-term investment approach of family capital is now better suited for Elevation Partners, which has grown to over $4.2 billion AUM and targets firms sized $200 million to $3 billion as ideal partners.

“We like the family office space. Our partners and the families that represent us, they want us thinking 10 to 20 years out, and I think that fits better to what we're doing,” Dickson said. “Doesn't mean that one of our investments won't sell before that; If that's what's right, and that's what's ready for them, but they don't have to. It allows the advisor to stay in control, and not the private equity firm in control.”

Elevation invested in the $750 million father-son-led advisor Stonebrook Private in January, and Dickson says his firm looks to obtain between 20-40% equity stakes when investing. Because Emigrant Partners primarily serves ultra-high-net-worth clientele, Dickson saw Emigrant as an ideal partner to grow Elevation’s family office services for advisors to offer to clients. A new report from Cerulli Associates suggests that financial advisors will face declining fees on their wealthiest accounts, but Dickson sees family office services as a way for advisors to combat that threat of fee compression. 

“It's those high-end things, [such as] property and casualty insurance that the ultra-high-net-worth client wants and needs,” Dickson says. “And as you think about fee compression, it's those services that allow you to miss that fee compression.”

With backing from both the Penske and Milstein families, Elevation Point has brought in strong ties to the sports industry that Dickson says is more by design than coincidence. The Milstein family owns 8AM Golf, a holding company whose brands include Nicklaus Companies, Golf.com, Golf Magazine, and the T-Square Social bar in New York City that was co-founded by Justin Timberlake and Tiger Woods.

“When you think about auto racing, it's an expensive sport. You think about golf, it can be an expensive sport.  I do absolutely think that sports will be a part of our brand, and what we do,” said Dickson. “Because of these relationships, we have access to opportunities for [clients] to go to sporting events and participate in certain things, and for the ultra high worth client that we want to serve, that's really important.”