M&A
Wealth Enhancement Group
The independent wealth management firm has been sold to global private equity group TA Associates.
It purchased the equity stake owned by Lightyear Capital, which has been the majority owner of Wealth Enhancement Group since June 2015.
Under the terms of the acquisition, Wealth Enhancement will continue to be a privately held, independent firm, under its existing leadership team, brand and strategy.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The acquisition is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year.
Kudu Investment Management
The asset and wealth management solutions provider has acquired a minority interest in New York-based First Long Island Investors.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
First Long Island was co-founded in 1983 by Robert Rosenthal and Ralph Palleschi, and delivers investment and wealth management services.
Reverence Capital Partners
The private investment firm has acquired independent wealth management platform Advisor Group, which supports over 7,000 financial advisers and holds $272bn (£224bn, €245bn) of client assets.
Under the terms of the agreement, Reverence Capital and its affiliates, alongside Advisor Group employees and financial advisers, purchased 100% of the company.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
People moves
First Republic Bank
The private bank and wealth management company has appointed Mark Beach and Rick DuPont as managing directors and wealth managers at First Republic Investment Management.
Both will provide wealth management services to individuals and families and are based in Silicon Valley.
Beach has 27 years of wealth management experience and DuPont has 18 years of experience.
Prior to First Republic, Beach was a senior vice president at Merrill Lynch.
DuPont also worked for Merrill Lynch as a senior vice president for 18 years.
Neuberger Berman
Sharon Bowen has joined the investment manager’s seven-member board as an independent director for a three-year term.
Bowen is a director for the Intercontinental Exchange, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange and served as a Commissioner of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) from 2014 to 2017.
Congress Wealth Management
The Boston-based firm has named Gerald Graves and Chris Dudley as the west coast managing partner, and west coast partner and senior financial adviser, respectively.
Graves will lead the firm’s future Orange County, California office and will be responsible for the growth and expansion of Congress Wealth’s business throughout California, Oregon and Washington.
He joins Congress Wealth Management from Boston Private Wealth, where he was executive managing director for the firm’s west coast division.
Dudley will also be based in the Orange County office serving clients both locally and across the country.
He too joins from Boston Private Wealth, where he was director and senior wealth adviser in Los Angeles, California.
Smith & Howard Wealth Management
Brad Swinsburg has been promoted to chief investment officer at the Atlanta-based registered investment adviser (RIA).
In the role, Swinsburg will chair the investment policy committee and be responsible for the oversight and development of Smith & Howard Wealth Management’s investment programme.
In addition, he will work directly on asset allocation, investment implementation and monitoring.
Swinsburg joined Smith & Howard Wealth Management in 2016 as director of investments.
Element Pointe Advisors
The Miami-based independent wealth management has named John Rodriguez as client service associate.
Rodriguez joins Element Pointe after nine years at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where he worked in a variety of roles, most recently as a financial solutions adviser.
