Dynasty Financial Partners, a wealth management platform and service provider, has booked its largest RIA addition to date, bringing on former Raymond James affiliate SageSpring Wealth Partners.
Nashville-based SageSpring, which has been with broker/dealer Raymond James for over 20 years, comprises more than 45 teams of advisors and has $6.4 billion in assets under management.
Dynasty, which was founded in 2010, called SageSpring’s jump “one of the largest moves to full independence in the industry over the last several years.” St. Petersburg, Fla.-based Dynasty has grown its assets on the platform nearly two-fold since 2022 as it taps a trend toward larger, often investment-backed RIAs leaving their b/ds.
Investment firm Merchant is a minority owner in SageSpring and will remain so after the Dynasty deal, according to the announcement. Fidelity Investments will be the firm’s primary custodian.
SageSpring President Jeffrey Dobyns started with Raymond James at the age of 26 and, over the ensuing years, built a team that now has nine offices across Tennessee, Alabama, Texas, Nebraska and Iowa. Dobyns said there was “nothing broken at Raymond James and that they have “incredible leadership,” but noted that the move with Dynasty would make the firm “more nimble.”
“We have some really high expectations of resources that [our advisors] want to have, and they want to have them quickly to provide to their clients,” he said. “We just wanted to have total flexibility and control and the ability to integrate that type of technology as soon as it’s available and proven and ready to roll.”
SageSpring has transitioned about 10,000 client accounts to the new system, with Dobyns saying the move was done without any attrition. The firm even added client assets it had not been managing previously via custodian Fidelity.
Dobyns said the firm had reviewed the move toward independence for about three years and considered various options. Dynasty worked, he said, because of its technology capabilities for advisors ranging from trading to tax loss harvesting to the customer relationship management system.
Another draw was Dynasty’s ability to offer a customized outsourced chief investment officer to replace Raymond James’ outsourced asset management team, he said. In addition, it could mitigate any tax issues from transitioning clients through services provided by the technology firm 55ip.
SageSpring will also now, for the first time, start growing via acquisition, Dobyns said, noting the firm will be announcing an addition in the “near future.” He noted interest in joining the team from both growing RIAs and retiring advisors who are looking to transition clients in a way that can “secure their legacy.”
John Furey, managing partner of Advisor Growth Strategies, said Dynasty’s relatively recent move toward adding investment banking capabilities, along with Merchant’s capital backing, most likely made the possibility of growth through acquisition an attractive part of the move.
Furey, who was not involved with the deal, said the more than $6 billion in assets was a “meaningful” amount by way of a move to a more fully independent model.
He said many RIAs are moving away from their broker/dealer in part to gain more control over compliance and other operations, such as marketing.
“There’s a velocity to it,” he said. “When you are working with a home office and an institution, it’s just not as nimble.”
Dynasty, which is helmed by founder, CEO and President Shirl Penney, had been considering an initial public offering at the start of 2022 when it had about $68 billion in platform assets. It eventually withdrew that exploration at the end of that year, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
Earlier this month, the firm hired Raymond James veteran Lindsey Strawhecker as director of transitions. That put her in place to oversee the onboarding of new advisory firms and client satisfaction when transitions occur.
According to a spokesperson, Dynasty’s largest partner firm at the moment is Summit Trail Advisors, which has grown to $16 billion in AUM since joining in 2015.
