Four registered investment advisors in the Focus Financial Partners network have left the Protocol for Broker Recruiting, an intra-industry agreement that allows advisors some leeway in taking client data with them when they change firms.
Icon Wealth Partners, a Houston-based RIA with about $2 billion in total assets as of Dec. 31, withdrew from the pact on Nov. 1, according to JS Held, a global consultancy that administers the protocol.
Founded in 2017, Icon joined the Focus partnership in 2022. It provides advice to more than 3,000 high-net-worth families, business owners, corporate executives, law firms and foundations around the country. In addition to providing investment advice and management as well as financial planning services, the firm also focuses on business strategy, exit planning, and tax and estate strategies.
Edge Capital Partners, an Atlanta-based RIA with about $9 billion in total assets as of Dec. 31, filed earlier this month to withdraw from the protocol on Nov. 16. The firm, which focuses on ultra-high-net-worth clients, joined Focus in 2018. It was founded in 2006 by Bert Rayle, Harry Jones, Bill Maner, Paul Izlar, Peek Garlington and Will Skeean, who previously had careers with Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley.
New York-based Seasons of Advice Wealth Management, an RIA with about $1 billion in assets, also filed earlier this month to leave the agreement on Nov. 16. In 2020, Seasons of Advice became Focus’s 67th acquisition. Charles Hamowy, Christopher Conigliaro and Matthew Woolf founded the RIA in 2017.
One Charles Private Wealth, a Hingham, Mass.-based RIA with about $715 million in assets, also exited the protocol on Nov. 14. One Charles was founded in 2015 by Paul Squarcia Jr., and became a Focus partner that same year. Prior to founding the firm, Squarcia was a 15-year veteran of Merrill Lynch.
Last year, Focus was taken private in a sale to private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice. Since then, executives have been busy cleaning up its sprawling operation, consolidating its 90 independently operated subsidiary practices into a handful of its largest branded firms, including The Colony Group and Kovitz Investment Group.
Brian Hamburger, president and CEO of MarketCounsel, said he wasn’t sure the firms leaving the protocol was a direct signal that an acquisition was imminent. Colony, for example, is no longer in the protocol, so there would be no need for those other firms to exit.
“Depending on the structure of the acquisition, typically the companies don’t remain intact,” Hamburger said. “In most acquisitions you’re looking at, even among affiliates, they’re buying the assets because they want to get operational efficiencies. As a result, those practices would become aligned merely by the acquisition itself. The question is, is there an even larger transaction where these firms are leaving the protocol?”
A spokesman for Focus and executives from the four RIAs did not respond to requests for comment prior to publication.
