Our US correspondent, looking back and forward after a busy year in the North American sector, examines some of the most eye-catching corporate moves and changes in 2024.

The top questions have become a Family Wealth Report tradition, and this year we’re dividing the questions into two parts, the first involving some of the wealth management industry’s best known executives. 

Will we ever find out what Dan Arnold did to get fired?
In Arnold’s seven years as CEO of LPL Financial, revenues at the country’s largest independent broker-dealer nearly tripled and the stock price more than quadrupled. But in a shocking announcement in October, LPL dismissed Arnold for cause, saying that he made statements to employees that violated the company’s code of conduct and “commitment to a respectful workplace,” without specifying exactly what he did.

There are a lot of industry executives who would like to know what exactly you have to say with that kind of track record to get summarily kicked to the curb and publicly humiliated. Was there a pattern of abusive behavior? Who was offended and why?

How far out there is Ron Carson and why are all those executives leaving his company?
The man started an advisory firm in college dorm room and 40 years later it has $38 billion in assets. Around eight years ago Carson started experimenting with psychedelic drugs and this year he burned all his neckties, dropped “Ron” for “Omani” (it means “to run into a stiff wind”) and stepped down as CEO of Carson Group.

He turned his hunting lodge into “Freedom Healing Ranch” and just this month launched Omya, "a community of people committed to redefining success.” According to Omya’s website, members can "[p]artake in ancient medicine journeys and ceremonies that will guide you to the answers within yourself."

Carson remains chairman of Carson Group, where it seems that not everyone is sharing a unified consciousness. Since Ron became Omani, a number of top executives have exited, including, most recently, Teri Shepard, president of Carson Group. No word yet on whether executives from minority investor Bain Capital have gone on any ancient medicine journeys.

Can Karl Heckenberg continue his hot streak as the minority macher – and is Joe Duran jealous?
Since launching Constellation Wealth Capital just over a year ago, former Emigrant Partners chief executive Karl Heckenberg has been on an impressive tear, buying minority stakes in eight high profile wealth managers, including AlTi Tiedemann Global, Cresset and Lido Advisors. As Heckenberg promised when he formed Constellation, the serial RIA investment vehicle inaugural fund has raised just over $1 billion and shows no signs of slowing down.

As it happens, one of the industry’s most high profile executives, United Capital Partners founder and, post-United sale, Goldman Sachs partner Joe Duran, launched Rise Growth Partners, also an RIA minority investment vehicle, around the same time. But Rise Growth hasn’t made nearly as big a splash, investing in just one RIA in 2024.

How far can Michael Nathanson and Adam Birenbaum take Focus Financial with a bifurcated strategy?
So far, so good. Since PE firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice  bought a majority stake in Focus Financial last summer and took the RIA giant private, the results have been impressive. 
Led by the superstar executive tandem of Nathanson (Colony Group) and Birenbaum (Buckingham Strategic Wealth), nearly two dozen of the company’s 90-odd loosely affiliated advisory firms  have been consolidated into three key hub enterprises.

Nathanson calls them “the coalition of the willing,” but that still leaves around 70 partner firms on the outside, and while Focus owns the assets, the management teams are independent. That’s a lot of loose cats to herd, and not the ideal business model to challenge Focus’ big boy competitors, who are fully integrated under one brand. Is the yin/yang approach sustainable or schizophrenic? 

Is Peter Mallouk gearing up for a blockbuster M&A deal?
There’s no question that Mallouk, the ultra-ambitious Creative Planning CEO and majority owner, is locked and loaded. Already backed by private equity firm General Atlantic, this year Mallouk got even more capital firepower from TPG, one of the world’s biggest PE firms. Plus, he took out a big fat $1.35 billion syndicated term loan arranged by Goldman Sachs. 

Creative Planning is digesting its acquisition of Goldman Sachs’ retail wealth management division (formerly United Capital) and a number of other sizable RIA acquisitions. Mallouk has always been upfront about his goal for Creative Planning to be “the leading national wealth management firm” and few doubt that he’s sizing up which top tier firm he can add to his trophy case.