Pathstone, a private equity-backed, multifamily office based in Englewood, N.J., has penned an agreement to acquire Hall Capital Partners, a long-standing, bi-coastal registered investment advisor with $45 billion in client assets. The combination will create an RIA with nearly $160 billion in assets under advisement and administration and $100 billion in assets under management.
Pathstone will now have a national footprint with 23 offices across the country and over 750 team members, nearly 300 of whom are equity shareholders. The addition of Hall Capital also gives it a stronger foothold in New York and San Francisco, where the firm is based.
Hall Capital was founded in 1994 by Katie Hall, who now serves as co-chair. It has 180 team members serving 130 clients, which include ultra-high-net-worth families, foundations and endowments. The firm has long been considered a pioneer in the independent investment advisor space and is currently owned by the management team.
“This combination represents the natural next step for Hall Capital,” Hall said in a statement. “From the beginning, we have strived and prided ourselves on our ability to meet the needs of our clients, and we truly believe this combination brings together two complementary organizations who will benefit immensely from collaboration and sharing of resources.”
“We have been a long-time admirer of Hall as one of the most respected, long-standing firms in our industry, and we believe that combining the best of our respective organizations creates a truly unique value proposition,” Pathstone CEO Matt Fleissig said in a statement. “We could not be more excited as we believe our combination represents a seminal moment for our firm, redefining the concept of scale in our industry and accessing a tremendous new group of team members and two sought-after locations—San Francisco and New York.”
Pathstone has been paving a path for itself in the RIA space, growing from $16 billion in AUA in 2019 to nearly $160 billion today.
The RIA’s employee ownership model was introduced in late 2019, following an initial investment from Lovell Minnick Partners at a time when Pathstone claimed close to $15 billion in assets.
Early last year, middle-market private equity firm Kelso & Company joined LMP as a Pathstone investor, prompting LMP’s investment banker, Peter Nesvold of Republic Capital Group, to declare the firm had become a “buyer of choice in the UHNW market.”
Both private equity firms will be providing additional capital to support the Hall Capital acquisition.
Hall Capital used UBS Securities to advise on the deal, while Ardea Partners advised Pathstone on the transaction.
