By Tobias Salinger, Financial Planning featuring By JC Abusaid, CEO/President
An Osaic branch has grown to many times its size in just over four years on the strength of recruiting, succession planning and tools for financial advisors.
The AmeriFlex Group — a Las Vegas-based registered investment advisory firm that will switch its brokerage from Advisor Group’s SagePoint Financial to Osaic in September — has topped 100 financial advisors and $6.5 billion in client assets after launching the RIA with only 13 with around $100 million in 2019, according to Chief Operating Officer Jesse Kurrasch.
Rather than using the traditional M&A deals that are driving much of the industry’s expansion, AmeriFlex is recruiting independent teams attracted to succession plans with no change in equity upfront and proprietary planning software offered by the branch, he said.
“There seems to be big interest in the industry in firms that do more than just provide a back- office role,” Kurrasch said in an interview. “It’s a culmination of all these different pieces and, on top of that, there’s also the opportunity to be an owner in the Ameriflex RIA.”
Wealth management firms are enlarging their footprints through multiple methods reflected in AmeriFlex’s June 27 announcement and four others this week. Savant Wealth Management; Crestwood Advisor Group, a Focus Financial Partners-owned RIA; and Procyon Partners, an RIA that uses the Dynasty Financial Partners platform, each unveiled significant deals. On the advisor recruiting trail, independent brokerage Arkadios Capital picked up two teams from rivals with a combined $400 million in client assets. Organic growth from attracting new clients or additional assets from existing ones represents the third primary form of RIA growth.
Since 2018, Long Beach, California-based RIA Halbert Hargrove has reached its annual target of boosting the count of client households by a net 10%, according to CEO JC Abusaid. At 46 employees, including nearly 20 advisors managing $3 billion in client assets on behalf of about 800 families, the firm has achieved substantial scale. Halbert Hargrove did so, though, without any M&A deals in the past or any plans to pursue a deal in the future, Abusaid noted in an interview. He added the caveat that the firm won’t reject any opportunities out of hand.
“Every year we broke our prior record in terms of growth,” Abusaid said. “That’s when we determined, if we could grow organically at that rate, why would we do M&A? Why would we put at risk who we are and our culture?”
