Page 27 - Investment Advisor October 2022

Mariner Platform Solutions now works with 33 firms, 66 About a month before the Financial Services Network
advisors and $2.6 billion in assets under management, while deal was announced, Mariner said it was buying Corbenic
Mariner Wealth Advisors and its affiliates advise clients with Partners, a Bethlehem, Pennsylvania- based independent RIA
some $60 billion in assets (as of March 31). with over $1 billion in assets under management. That deal
“It’s exciting when you get the chance to align your organi- was Mariner’s fourth acquisition of 2022, following its pur-
zation with a firm that shares the same vision and principles chases of Boston-based Taylor Wealth Management Partners;
for taking care of advisors so they can take better care of their Bloomfield Hills, Michigan-based Emerson Wealth; and
clients,” Matthew Enyedi, managing director, LPL Financial Miramar Beach, Florida-based Arbor Wealth Management.
said in a statement. Mariner acquired 14 firms in 2021.

Hightower-Highland Private Wealth
In late August, RIA Hightower made a strategic investment
in Highland Private Wealth Management, an RIA in Bellevue,
Washington that was founded in 1999 and manages $1.2 billion
in client assets. The transaction marked Hightower’s fifth deal of
2022 and followed its announcement two weeks ago that it facili-
tated a sub-acquisition for Fairport Wealth, an advisory business
in Cleveland, Ohio that manages $3.3 billion in client assets.
Among the other deals this year, Hightower said in February

also more sophisticated planning approaches. But ultimately, What’s your short-term view of the markets? Would you
these technologies are [too] complex to really integrate into say we’re in a recession?
the practice of an RIA. They require process changes. They Well, you know, fortunately I’m not managing this $350 bil-
require a higher technology IQ than you see [in] many of lion that the Focus partners, in aggregate, manage. It is man-
the RIAs, which ultimately is a driver of consolidation and a aged by each of our partner firms individually.
driver of scale. But if you want my layman’s opinion … it’s a recession or
we are very, very close to a recession. It’s a very complex
What are your RIA partners looking for and what’s your key market environment. No question we are going to see sig-
business strategy today? nificant volatility for a time to come, which really requires a
Building the business and remaining the main decision-maker, steady hand, a thoughtful hand here to manage assets.
one. Two, access to real value-added programs and perma- And by the way, one thing I should have mentioned before,
nent capital. If these things matter to an RIA, there’s nobody we’re seeing … more on the lower end of the high-net-worth
else who has this mix of a value proposition. So the value- market, [is] many people who were self-directed, who were
added programs here [at Focus] … are really important. kind of managing their own money, are simply throwing their
We have two types of programs [for them]. We have towel [in] and then basically concluding, ‘look, I really need
everything that relates to practice management, meaning an advisor.’”
helping our partners run their businesses [and] get better on
the next level. What else is on your mind?
The second area I’m very excited about is Focus Client Maybe just one thing, because I’m very excited about it. One
Solutions. [This is] where we use our unique scale in this of the deals that we announced recently: a new partner firm
industry to simplify better solutions for the end client and is our first entry into Switzerland, Octogone, a firm of almost
really enhance our partner’s value proposition and basically $5 billion in client assets.
enabling them to serve their clients better. We really have high hopes for international in general.
These are areas like access to alternatives. This is credit. Today, Focus only is kind of [about] $100 million in revenues
This is access to cash. This is trust services. There are other from international. But we believe, ultimately, we want to
areas that we are still working on that really ultimately are a move this to $400 million to $500 million in revenues over
differentiator, not just for Focus, but really for our partners. time, or 20% or so of our total revenue. —Jeff Berman

OCTOBER 2022 INVESTMENT ADVISOR 25