Lake Avenue Financial, a Pasadena, Calif.-based registered investment advisory firm with $160 million in managed assets, is joining forces with the Waltham, Mass. firm Integrated Partners, a hybrid registered investment advisor and office of supervisory jurisdiction of LPL Financial.
The transition, which was announced at the Riskalyze Fearless Investing Summit in Boston, is set to occur within 90 days, with Lake Avenue CEO Alex Chalekian taking on a role as Integrated’s Head of Practice Acquisitions. In this new position, Chalekian will focus on inorganic strategies for building growth and internal succession planning for the firm’s advisors, while retaining his role at Lake Avenue.
“It was important for us as a team to retain our independence as an advisory firm, while also partnering with a firm that could accelerate our growth and in turn provide an opportunity to add value for fellow advisors,” he said. “I look forward to joining the leadership team and helping to grow this organization into an industry powerhouse.”
Lake Avenue’s team had been seeking growth and outreach opportunities for some time but were attracted by Integrated’s pledge to avoid any disruption into Lake Avenue’s operations and its open architecture approach. Like Integrated Partners, Lake Avenue Financial is a hybrid RIA with LPL.
Earlier this year, Integrated Partners rebranded from Integrated Financial Partners, and it currently manages about $6 billion in brokerage and advisory assets. At the firm’s annual conference in April, President and Founder Paul Saganey said he expected Integrated to add $1 billion in assets in the next year by targeting business owners looking to sell in the next two years. In July, Integrated added Mohr Financial Group, a San Diego, Calif.-based firm with $430 million in advisory and brokerage assets who joined Integrated from Lincoln Financial; it was one of 10 new firms from California to join Integrated since the middle of 2018.
Rob Sandrew, Integrated’s SVP for business development, said the Lake Avenue partnership was another in a series of moves to strengthen the firm’s impact in the independent space.
“If you look at all the deals we’ve announced this year to date, and the ones we’ll be announcing throughout the remainder of 2019, you’ll notice a pattern: outstanding advisors with no ceiling on growth potential who are high energy, active participants in the continued rise of the independent financial advisory community and want to be part of something bigger than themselves,” he said.
