With about 30 firms now a part of Dynasty Financial, the firm sees no end in sight as it added a Wells Fargo team to its network on Monday.
Led by Chuck Eberly and Larry DeFluri, the newly formed SevenBridge Financial Group immediately became one of the largest independent advisory firms in Pennsylvania with $250 million in client assets.
Based in Harrisburg, Penn., the four-person team—which includes advisor Michael C. McConahy and planner and Patricia Jakeway—specializes in working with high-net-worth families and business owners, as well as individuals who receive income from natural gas leases on their properties.
Dynasty crafted a customized platform for SevenBridge, which includes the firm’s investment platform, as well as integrated research services from Wilshire Associates and Callan Associates and portfolio and reporting tools provided by Envestnet. Charles Schwab will serve as SevenBridge’s custodian.
“When I look at the whole transition process, with a firm like Dynasty, it was a lot easier than I expected,” Eberly said.
“More and more it’s happening that large wirehouse teams are looking for a better solution for their clients,” he said. “That’s the conclusion we came to, that we can deliver a higher level of service to our clients, and customize it more than we were used to.”
“The number of inquiries we’re receiving is at an all time high,” Dynasty CEO Shirl Penney said, adding that the partnership with SevenBridge grew from a referral by Schwab.
He said Dynasty is taking advantage of the breakaway momentum and interest from independent advisors, as well as the chaos at the boutique wealth management firms—those like Barclays, Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse.
“Our model was built to be applicable for breakaway advisors where we’re turnkeying the entire setup,” he says. “There continues to be opportunity with all the major firms where advisors are looking for more independent setup with their clients.”
Still, there's been no IPO talk at Dynasty, Penney said.
“We don’t have any professional capital and we think this is a competitive advantage in some ways," he said. "I don’t have a private equity gun to my head—there’s no pressure on me by our board around an exit. The focus is on building a great business."
Instead, Dynasty’s management thinks about maintaining the right amount of growth. “I don’t know too many firms in this space that could handle the amount and velocity of onboardings that we’ve been blessed to be able to have over the last several months,” Penney said.
The firm plans to add a number of new hires on the service side and will be announcing some new people in the coming weeks. Additional hires on the network development team to support Tim Bello, who is in charge of helping advisor teams make the transition to the Dynasty platform, are also in the works, Penney said.
