Focus Adds $926M Advisor Group

Debra Brede and her team make the move after spending the past 30 years with Commonwealth Financial.

Debra Brede and her team will join GW & Wade.

Focus Financial Partners has recruited advisor Debra Brede away from Commonwealth Financial Network, the firm she was affiliated with for the past 30 years.

Brede and the rest of her nine-person team are joining Focus partner firm GW & Wade in Wellesley, Massachusetts. They work with $926 million of assets.

“We are thrilled that Debra and her team will be joining GW & Wade,” said Focus CEO and Chairman Rudy Adolf, in a statement.

“This transaction will expand GW & Wade’s deep bench of talent. It will also further increase GW & Wade’s scale and expand its footprint in the Northeast, which is a sophisticated and growing wealth management market,” Adolf said.

Brede said in a statement that moving to GW & Wade “allows me to continue serving my clients while also preserving the legacy and reputation that I have built over my 35-year career.”

The news comes about a month after Focus Financial struck a deal to acquire Fairway Wealth Management, an RIA with $1.6 billion under management in the Cleveland area.

That was Focus’ 15th transaction of 2020; at the time, it had more than $200 billion in client assets across its partnership of 65 firms.

“Talent acquisition is a central component of the value-add that we provide to our partner firms, particularly finding highly experienced advisors and teams who have a long track record of success in serving ultra-high and high net worth clients,” Adolf added.

The Brede transaction “is also an example of how the diversity of our partnership enables us to find the right match for founders seeking to transition their businesses,” he said.

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