The Colony Group Adds 5 Connectus Wealth Units

Focus Financial Partners said Monday that five U.S.-based business lines within partner firm Connectus Wealth Advisers have joined The Colony Group, a Focus partner firm.

The firms are: Atlas Private Wealth Management, Connectus Private, Hunt Valley Wealth, Mid-Continent Capital and NEIRG Wealth Management.

With the alliance, Connectus advisors and clients joining Colony “will benefit from expanded services and deeper capabilities, gaining access to Colony’s open architecture investment platform, in-house tax planning, family office services and more,” Focus said Monday in a statement.

“Importantly, this transaction adds senior-level talent to Colony and will strengthen its footprint in key markets, including Chicago, greater Baltimore and South Florida,” Focus said.

The five Connectus groups moving to Colony Group have a total of $5.3 billion in assets under management.

Zinovy Iosovich, president and chief services officer of Colony, said the firms “are excited to welcome these experienced and talented teams to Colony,” and that “each brings a unique offering and core competency, and we are committed to providing the advisory teams additional depth and broader capabilities to better serve their clients.”

Michael Nathanson, CEO of Focus, added that the deal “maximizes the potential and effectiveness of each Connectus business line while adding additional high-quality senior leadership to Colony.”

Gregory Britton, managing director, wealth management, announced on LinkedIn that he will become principal/managing director of Wealth Management at The Colony Group. ”I’m very excited to begin the next step of my journey with Focus Financial Partners,” Britton said.

The NorthCoast Asset Management business line of Connectus Wealth Advisers, headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut, also formally joined Focus firm Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC on Monday. NorthCoast Asset Management brings $3.4 billion in AUM to Kovitz.

NorthCoast joined Connectus in 2021 and specializes in quantitative research, a systematic investment process and a rigorous approach to the construction of risk-managed portfolios, Focus said Monday.

“NorthCoast works with both private and institutional clients and complements its financial planning services with an extensive range of proprietary investment solutions, including investment strategies that focus on capital appreciation with downside risk management, and alternative strategies to hedge downside risk when diversifying concentrated stock positions,” Focus said.

Through the transaction, NorthCoast will gain access to an expanded suite of wealth management services for its clients, including private investments and family office offerings.

On May 6, Focus said two of its flagship advisory firm partners — Buckingham Strategic Wealth and The Colony Group — were in advanced discussions to merge in order to unify their resources and talent and further expand their respective capabilities.

Buckingham’s chairman and CEO, Adam Birenbaum, will be the combined company’s CEO, according to the announcement. Colony Group CEO Michael Nathanson, who on April 30 was named CEO of Focus, will shift to serving solely as CEO of Focus.