Focus Financial Adds $1B RIA in Chicago

July 01, 2015 at 10:30 AM
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Focus Financial Partners said Wednesday that it is adding a partner group in the Chicago area and that two existing partners have added advisors. Relative Value Partners comes on board near the Windy City with about $1 billion in client assets and seven financial professionals.  

"Focus has seen strong deal momentum in 2015 as high-performing, entrepreneurial firms seek to enhance, grow and build continuity into their businesses," said founder and CEO Rudy Adolf, in a statement. "Our M&A expertise and value-add programs combined with our almost unparalleled access to capital lends us a unique advantage in attracting high-caliber firms such as these."

Relative Value Partners joins Focus in Northbrook, Illinois. According to Focus, this gives the partnership three RIAs in the metropolitan area, following previously completed transactions with Vestor Capital and Strategic Wealth Partners.

RVP serves high-net-worth clients and was founded in 2004 by Maury Fertig and Bob Huffman, who previously held senior positions at Citigroup/Salomon Brothers; each has more than 20 years of industry experience.

In addition, Quadrant Private Wealth of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, a group with $500 million in assets that was formed in May 2014 by a team of ex-Merrill Lynch advisors, has completed its transition to Focus.

Meanwhile, JFS Wealth Advisors of Hermitage, Pennsylvania, added Thomas Paulus to its practice, and Buckingham Asset Management of St. Louis added Houston-based Posey Capital Management, which includes advisors Thomas Posey and Jeffrey Eschman, as well as $200 million in client assets.

"Buckingham has completed five mergers and strategic transactions in 2015, following the most recent addition of Classic Capital, a Short Hills, NJ-based RIA, in April," Focus explained in a press release. Plus, in the past 90 days, "Focus has brought on four new partner firms and executed multiple mergers."

Focus Financial Partners adds that it has yearly revenue (or fees and commissions) of about $325 million.

Raymond James' News 

Raymond James' (RJF) independent-employee channel. the Advisor Select Division, has added a team of three advisors in Beaufort, South Carolina. The group comes over from Wells Fargo Advisors (WFC) with about $390 million in client assets and some $2.6 million in yearly fees and commissions. The practice includes advisors Charles Tumlin, Arthur Levin and Hall Sumner, CFP.

"Arthur, Charles and Hall are a wonderful addition to our independent employee channel," said Chris Davitt, director of the Advisor Select Division of Raymond James, in a statement. "Their desire to establish their own freestanding office and boutique practice while at the same time remaining W-2 employees of Raymond James made them an ideal fit for the Advisor Select platform."

The trio does business as Tumlin Levin Sumner Wealth Management and says it appreciates "the freedom and support the Advisor Select model offers."

"We are pleased to be able to have more control of our practice, while still benefiting from the administrative and technology support provided by Raymond James. It's the best of both worlds for our practice and our clients," explained Tumlin in a press release.

Each of the three FAs began their careers at A.G. Edwards & Sons, which was later merged with Wachovia and Wells Fargo.

"I am pleased to welcome Charles, Arthur, Hall, Carson and Heidi to Raymond James," said Tash Elwyn, president of Raymond James & Associates, Private Client Group, in a statement. "The addition of this team is another indicator that we're attracting some of the very best in the industry and is further proof of the freedom Raymond James advisors have to operate their businesses with our support, not constraints."

 — Check out How to Take Over a $1 Billion Practice on ThinkAdvisor.

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