M&A
Mercer Advisors
The national registered investment adviser (RIA) firm made two acquisitions.
It bought Dallas, Texas-based wealth firm Quest Capital Management and Miller Advisors, a Kirkland, Washington wealth business, both for undisclosed sums.
Quest serves around 660 clients with assets under management (AuM) of approximately $1.5bn (£1bn, €1.3bn); while Miller has 200 clients and has $240m in AuM.
Integrity Marketing Group
Distributor of life and health insurance products Integrity acquired WealthFirm, a wealth management and retirement planning company headquartered in Nebraska.
Nancy Brozek and Jared Faltys, co-chief executives of WealthFirm, will become managing partners at Integrity.
The financial firms of the deal were not disclosed.
WealthFirm serves clients through financial advisers across the US with almost $3.5bn in AuM.
Franklin Templeton
The global investment manager has bought Aviva Investor’s US-based investment grade credit team.
It includes senior portfolio managers Josh Lohmeier and Michael Cho who will join the firm’s fixed income arm.
Tom Meyers, Aviva’s head of Americas client solution, will become part of Franklin Templeton Fixed Income as well, in the newly created role of senior vice president, senior director of investments and strategy development for fixed income.
The move will take place by the end of 2021.
People Moves
UBS Private Wealth Management
A four-person advisory team managing $2bn in client assets will join UBS in Newport Beach, California.
The team is led by private wealth advisers Steven and Christopher Weber, and it serves family offices and private foundations in California and across the southwest.
It includes senior wealth strategy associate Brian Weber and team administrator Krista Maloney.
Jupiter Asset Management
The asset management firm has expanded into the US market with the opening of a New York City hub.
It will host a team of three which will act as an extension of the UK-based $18bn AuM global fixed income team.
Joel Ojdana will lead the office. She joined the firm in London in 2018 and helped open the Denver office in 2020.
The other two members are David Rowe and Jordan Sonnenberg. Rowe joins from JP Morgan where he served as a leveraged loan and high-yield credit analyst; while Sonnenberg was previously at Deutsche Bank where he worked as a research associate within the high-yield credit team.
Advisor Group
The network of independent wealth firm has added three companies which collectively oversee nearly $500m in client assets.
The three companies join Advisor Group through its subsidiary SagePoint Financial.
They are:
- Curo Financial, a La Jolla, California-based business with $170m in client assets, led by founder and president James Lingelbach, and includes financial planner Ciano Villaquiran;
- Pajak Financial Services, a solo wealth practice led by financial adviser Laura Harger Pajak, based in Sacramento, California with $200m in client assets; and,
- Peak Financial Solutions, also a solo practice, headed by chief executive Michael Keeler, based in Las Vegas with $130m in client assets.
