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Industry Spotlight > Mergers and Acquisitions

Focus Financial to Add $3B in AUM With 3 New Acquisitions

By Jeff Berman

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What You Need to Know

  • Focus is adding three more RIAs: Sonora Investment Management, Collins Investment Group and New Providence Asset Management.
  • The additions are part of the RIA aggregator's continued aggressive growth strategy and were all announced Thursday.
  • Sonora represents the sixth partner firm and 15th M&A transaction for Focus so far this year.

The RIA aggregator Focus Financial continued its aggressive growth on Thursday, announcing deals to add three more RIAs that manage $3 billion in combined client assets.

The latest additions will be Sonora Investment Management, with offices in Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona; Collins Investment Group in Bethesda, Maryland; and New Providence Asset Management in New York.

All three acquisitions are expected to close in the current quarter, subject to customary closing conditions, Focus said. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Focus partner firms combined manage more than $250 billion in client assets.

Sonora Details

Sonora is led by co-founders Brad Toland and Doug Rogers, together with Tim Wilcox, Graham Gaines and Mike Arko.

It represents the sixth partner firm and 15th M&A transaction for Focus so far this year, according to Rudy Adolf, Focus CEO, chairman and founder.

In Sonora’s most recent Form ADV, filed March 16, it reported having eight advisors, all registered with one or more state securities authorities as advisor reps.

Sonora was managing assets of $962.7 million for 422 high-net-worth clients and $386.6 million for other clients, it said.

CIG Details

Collins Investment Group will join Rockville, Maryland-based Focus partner firm XML Financial Group, founded by Robert Collins in 2008.

The transaction “not only expands XML’s presence in the high-net-worth market in their local area, but also brings together two highly complementary businesses,” according to Adolf.

CIG manages clients assets of more than $1 billion, according to its website.

New Providence Details

New Providence will join the Focus partner firm The Colony Group, an independent, fee-only financial advisory firm with locations in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Virginia.

New Providence was founded in 2003 by John Vogelstein, its chairman, who will serve as Colony vice chair; and is run by a team led by CEO Andrew Vogelstein, who will join Colony’s executive team as president of institutional advisory services, and Pier Friend, chief investment officer, who will serve as CIO of institutional advisory services.

New Providence serves as an outsourced CIO for institutions, foundations, endowments, family offices and ultra-high-net-worth individuals. The transaction marks the second transaction in the OCIO space for Focus as “we continue to increase our presence in this market, and it also expands our footprint in the ultra-high-net-worth sector,” according to Adolf.

In its most recent Form ADV, filed March 29, New Providence said it had 12 advisors, none of them registered BD or investment advisor reps. The firm was managing $699.7 million in assets for eight high-net-worth clients, it said.

Focus M&A Strategy Update

“Our M&A pipeline is at record levels, both in the U.S. and internationally, and we anticipate that this pace of activity will increase further in the second half of 2021,” a Focus spokesperson told ThinkAdvisor on Friday.

“Yesterday we closed on a new $800 million tranche to our existing term loan and will use the proceeds to pre-fund the transactions we anticipate closing over the next several quarters,” the spokesperson said. “We expect to deploy capital this year significantly in excess of our historical levels as we accelerate the expansion of our partnership globally.”

Pictured: Focus Financial CEO Rudy Adolf.

Jeff Berman

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