Raleigh, North Carolina–based CAPTRUST, a registered investment advisory (RIA) with $224 billion in client assets among institutions and individual investors, is merging with CapTrust Advisors, a Tampa, Florida–based firm with $19 billion, in one of the firm’s three largest deals in its 20-year history. The two firms used to be affiliated through the same back-office provider, CapTrust Association, and are now reuniting, creating a firm with $243 billion in client assets and 34 offices nationwide.
“We’ve known them for 20 years, so there weren’t any surprises on the culture side, which is critically important to getting the right kind of fit,” said J. Fielding Miller, CAPTRUST CEO and cofounder.
In the mid-1990s, broker/dealer Interstate/Johnson Lane—which was subsequently folded into Wachovia Securities—created CapTrust as a subsidiary, providing back-office services for independent advisory firms focused on fee-based business.
“Thirty years ago, nobody in the brokerage industry was doing that, or very few,” Miller said.
Thirteen independent firms affiliated with CapTrust, and each one had the option of using the name for their businesses. Today, six firms around the country still use the name, according to the association’s website, although this transaction brings it down to five.
Miller said the Tampa-based CapTrust has a large presence in the endowment and foundation consulting business, so the deal bolsters his firm’s presence in that market.
Year to date, CAPTRUST has completed six transactions, and combined with organic growth, the firm has added $40 billion this year. Over the last 20 years, the firm has grown organically by 12 percent a year, 20 percent including acquisitions.
The firm’s assets are primarily from large institutional clients for which the firm provides consulting services. But wealth management is a growing portion of CAPTRUST’s revenues, at 35 percent.
