Through a combination of advisor additions and market growth, Lido Advisors increased assets under management from $5.3 billion to $7.26 billion over 2020, the company announced.
“We had a phenomenal year last year even with COVID,” said Greg Kushner, Lido’s founder and senior managing director, during a Zoom conference call. “We were still adding assets at a rapid pace.”
The 35% jump in AUM stemmed from the close of two acquisitions and the addition of seven financial advisors. Lido has almost 2,000 client accounts, primarily focuses on high net worth individuals, and employs over 80 people, 32 of which provide investment advice, according to its most recent Form ADV.
In November, Lido acquired First Western Financial’s fixed income team that manages $700 million in AUM. The new firm was renamed Oakhurst Capital Management to match its sister organization and Lido affiliate, Oakhurst Advisors. A month after its First Western announcement, Lido in December announced it purchased a wealth management team from Quantam Capital Management.
The Los Angeles firm’s advisor force grew with the addition of former Bank of America private banker Hedieh Bolour; Dani Comart and Colin Grover from J.P. Morgan; Susan Kim from Decker & Co.; Shawn Moran from Crawford Investment Counsel; Marc Ordona from Morgan Stanley and Ann-Marie Sandquist from Charles Schwab.
When the pandemic pushed state governments to issue work form home orders, Lido sit had already said it had was an easy transition as they already had a work from home infrastructure set up. Employees had been working from home or remotely one or two days out of the week, according to Ozur.
“What I’m most proud about is how the team reacted to some really tough circumstances,” said Jason Ozur, Lido’s president.
The only difference in 2020 was that Lido increased its level of client communications to ease concerns around volatile markets.
“I think 2021 brings more challenges: When markets are at all time highs and interest rates are at all-time lows—or around that—it’s a very difficult environment and we’ve been able to manage through all that,” he said.
