Captrust Financial Advisors is adding two new firms that collectively total more than $2 billion in assets under management in a move that will broaden Captrust’s reach into Pennsylvania and parts of northeastern Ohio.
McQueen, Ball & Associates, located in Bethlehem, Pa. (with $1.3 billion in client assets), and Cornerstone Capital Advisors, based in Green, Ohio (with $770 million in managed assets), are the two newest firms to join Captrust, which is based in Raleigh, N.C.
“Both of these firms are great examples of how we are adding wealth management services in key markets like Pennsylvania and Ohio where we already have established institutional advisors and clients,” Captrust CEO and Founder J. Fielding Miller said in a statement.
These new additions follow a busy 2018 and early 2019 for Captrust, which includes more than 200 advisors in 43 locations with more than $300 billion in managed client assets. Last year, the firm was one of the top three RIA firms in terms of transactions, according to a report on mergers and acquisitions by Echelon Partners, a Los Angeles-based investment bank and consulting firm focused on wealth and investment managers. (Captrust had a 21.5% revenue growth and a $65 billion increase in managed assets in 2018, according to the firm). In April of this year, Captrust added three partners from FiduciaryVest who advised on more than $13 billion in institutional assets.
Across the industry, the amount of mergers and acquisitions among RIAs continue to growth; according to an April report from Echelon, there were 49 M&As involving RIAs during 2019’s first quarter, which was the highest volume of any quarter since Echelon began counting the number of deals in 2013. If this rate continues throughout the rest of the year, the total number of M&As in 2019 involving RIAs will exceed the previous year (though the report noted the rate of M&As often slows in the latter half of the year).
Additionally, the April report noted that deals exclusively involving RIAs totaled 17 during the first quarter, and if the trend continues, RIAs would be the buyers in 69 total deals this year, an increase of 41% over 2018.
