Captrust to Buy $85B Investment Group

Chicago-based Ellwood's clients includes endowments, foundations, retirement plans, family offices and high-net-worth individuals.

Captrust Financial Advisors says it is buying Chicago-based Ellwood Associates, which works with about 200 clients with $85 billion in assets.

Ellwood’s client base includes endowments and foundations, retirement plans, hospitals, family offices and high-net-worth individuals. A total of 55 Ellwood employees are set to join Captrust.

The transaction should close in the fourth quarter of 2021 and represents Captrust’s 51st addition since 2006. The deal also gives the RIA its first location in Chicago, as well as a greater  presence in Denver.

Captrust currently has about 900 employees, $60 billion in assets under management and roughly $600 billion in assets under advisement.

“Ellwood has long been a firm that we have admired for their dedication to their clients,” said Rick Shoff, Captrust managing director, advisor group, in a statement. “As with all of the firms that join us, we believe they will make us better from day one and provide access to new offerings that our entire firm will benefit from.”

In addition to its large endowment and foundation practice, Ellwood will also bring its alternative investment expertise to Captrust, the firms said Thursday in a statement.

“When looking for the next step for Ellwood, we knew we wanted to be a part of a majority employee-owned firm to continue our own legacy of employee ownership,” according to Ellwood’s Timothy Egan, who will move to Captrust as a principal.