Bay Area-based Robertson Stephens Wealth Management has acquired Ratio Wealth Group, a Denver-based registered investment advisor with over $530 million in advisory assets. It's Robertson Stephens’ fourth deal this year and third office in Colorado.
Ratio Wealth Group was founded in November 2019 by Derek Scarth and Graham Gerlach, and the firm specializes in insurance planning and serving airline pilots. Prior to that, they were affiliated with MML Investors Services. They’re joined by Josh Freedman, Nancy Kimball, Becky Neils, Jen Padgett, Jack Seavall and Shawn Wallace.
The deal is Robertson Stephens’ largest yet, bringing the RIA’s total assets to over $6.5 billion across 22 locations.
"This merger with Robertson Stephens allows us to stay ahead of those value-added services to deliver on greater client expectations while continuing to expand our client base,” Scarth said in a statement. “For investments, greater expertise through an investment office helps reinforce our allocation decisions and private equity opportunities. Furthermore, we will gain access to an experienced wealth planning group that has specialties across tax, estate and wealth planning strategies."
The deal follows news earlier this month that Robertson Stephens opened its first office in Oregon with the addition of Rain Capital, a Portland-based RIA with over $360 million in assets.
Robertson Stephens has gone through several iterations. Once one of the most well reputed boutique wealth management firms in the world, the firm was sold to Bank of America in 1997. Twelve months later, Bank of America then sold it to BankBoston Corporation. In 2013, “Robbie Stephens” was rebuilt by the original management team headed by Joseph Piazza.
The firm is currently backed by private equity firm Long Arc Capital.