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Paul Saganey

Industry Spotlight > Mergers and Acquisitions

Integrated Partners Buys $2B RIA Near San Diego

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What You Need to Know

  • Integrated Partners acquired Laurel Wealth Advisors, a San Diego-area RIA whose 32 advisors manage over $2.25 billion in assets.
  • While this was the first acquisition for Integrated Partners, more are planned, according to Rob Sandrew, its chief growth officer
  • The deal closed in late November and expands the Integrated footprint in California market.

Integrated Partners said Monday it entered the M&A arena with the acquisition of Laurel Wealth Advisors, a San Diego-area RIA whose 32 advisors manage over $2.25 billion in assets.

Laurel, an independent advisory firm that specializes in holistic planning, was started in 2011 by  Lee Tripodi and Mark Welsh.

After serving as a branch manager for Smith Barney from 1991-2005, Tripodi went on to serve as senior vice president, executive director and complex manager at UBS before co-founding Laurel, according to his LinkedIn account.

Welsh was an advisor for UBS from 1998-2004, according to his report on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s website. He was with two other firms before co-founding Laurel in 2011.

Tripodi and Welsh “saw an opportunity to build an advisory firm that fosters core tenets of transparency and trust,” according to Integrated Partners. After recruiting 30 advisors, Laurel “recently started exploring paths to achieve continued scale,” Integrated Partners said.

Financial terms of the acquisition weren’t disclosed. The deal was reached “after significant due diligence by both parties,” said Waltham, Massachusetts-based Integrated Partners, which increased its assets under advisement from about $8 billion in 2019 to $15 billion as of Monday. Integrated now has 200 advisors, 165 CPAs and 60 regional offices across the U.S., it said.

While this was the first acquisition for Integrated Partners, more are planned, according to Rob Sandrew, its chief growth officer, who added the deal closed in late November and “expands the Integrated footprint” in the California market.

“Our model has now been bolstered by the ability to outright acquire firms with which we closely align,” Sandrew said in a statement. “We will continue to be deliberate in our recruiting efforts so we can help firms accelerate their growth while maintaining the qualities that make them unique.”

Paul Saganey, Integrated president and founder, said in the statement that the deal “represents a new dimension of Integrated’s growth strategy” and that “It was apparent almost immediately that the team at Laurel was a strong fit for us and vice versa.”

Integrated provides advisory firms with various options to accelerate growth, including minority and majority acquisition, revenue sharing and affiliation models, it said. “Each path allows RIAs to leverage Integrated’s suite of resources, which include technology, investment management, advanced planning, marketing support, succession planning, and comprehensive business counsel,” it said.

RIAs can also tap into Integrated’s long-running CPA Alliance, a program that partners advisors with CPAs to more comprehensively serve clients; and its Business Owner Solutions program, which it said offers business owners the necessary planning infrastructure as they prepare to exit their firms.

Integrated’s recently relaunched Integrated Family Office, meanwhile, brings together experts in family and business law, business management, private lending, recordkeeping and investing to serve the complex needs of business owners and affluent households, it said.

(Pictured: Paul Saganey, president and founder, Integrated Partners)


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