Captrust Financial Advisors has agreed to acquire a 55-person team in Chicago that oversees about $85 billion in assets for 200 clients.
Ellwood Associates will be joining Captrust upon the closing of the transaction, expected at the end of the fourth quarter of the year. It will also take on the Captrust name and brand. It will represent the 51st firm to join Captrust since 2006.
Ellwood serves endowments and foundations, retirement plans, hospitals, family offices and high-net-worth individuals, according to a company statement. The majority of Ellwood's assets are under advisement, meaning they are not discretionary. It does manage $1.5 billion in discretionary assets, resulting from its outsourced chief investment officer (OCIO) business.
Captrust manages more than $60 billion in assets and advises on more than $600 billion.
“Ellwood has long been a firm that we have admired for their dedication to their clients,” said Rick Shoff, Captrust managing director, advisor group, in a statement. “As with all of the firms that join us, we believe they will make us better from day one and provide access to new offerings that our entire firm will benefit from.”
In addition to an endowment and foundation practice, Ellwood will also bring alternative investment expertise to Captrust's investment team, the company stated. It will be Captrust's first office in Chicago.
“When looking for the next step for Ellwood, we knew we wanted to be a part of a majority employee-owned firm to continue our own legacy of employee ownership,” said Timothy Egan, a member of Ellwood's board of directors who will join Captrust as a principal, in a statement.
“Our ability to remain objective and put our clients’ needs first has been a guiding force for our firm since 1977," added Daniel George, a managing director at Ellwood who will also join Captrust as a principal, in a statement. "We know that Captrust shares these same core tenets, and we believe our clients will benefit greatly from the new resources they will have access to as part of Captrust.”
The deal will also give Captrust a bolstered presence in Denver, where it first gained a foothold in 2020, when Shine Wealth Partners joined the firm.
In the past two years, Captrust has added more than a dozen firms, including at least five this year. It has more than 900 employees across more than 50 locations in the United States.
