M and A
Sequoia Acquires Wealth Firm As M&A Trend Continues
The pattern of US wealth firms consolidating through mergers and acquisitions rolls on.
Sequoia Financial Group, the US wealth management house, is merging with LJPR Financial Advisors, a business based in Troy, Michigan. The deal is part of a consolidation trend in US wealth management.
The merger boosts Sequoia’s staff from 66 to 91 employees. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed in the firms’ statement yesterday.
Leon LaBrecque moves from being managing partner and CEO of LJPR Financial Advisors to taking on the role of chief growth officer of Sequoia. He will take charge of expanding the footprint and impact that Sequoia has in the Midwest, while also driving thought-leadership content for creative tax strategies and the complexities that surround them. Tom Haught, president of Sequoia, will continue in this role.
“LJPR aligns perfectly with our strategy and culture, and complements our existing business exceptionally well," Haught said.
Founded in Ohio in 1991, Sequoia has offices throughout Ohio, Florida and Michigan. LJPR was created in 1989.
There have been some notable deals in the North American wealth sector in recent months. At the start of May, Hellman & Friedman, the private equity house, agreed to buy Financial Engines, the US’s largest RIA, for $3.02 billion, intending to merge it with Edelman Financial Services, a previous acquisition. The deal, one of the largest to date in the US investment management sector, highlights the pressures that falling fees, rising compliance costs and low-cost robo-advice are placing on industry participants, prompting them to merge to achieve economies of scale and remain competitive. The Financial Engines transaction is the fourth largest takeover of an asset or wealth manager since the beginning of 2017, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The market for M&A in the RIA space has been busy so far this year. ECHELON, a US investment firm that advises wealth managers on M&A deals, said that the first quarter of this year saw a total of 46 transactions, and the company predicts that the US market will clock up more than 185 deals in 2018.
The wealth sector has seen its share of M&A activity as well as launches of new players and expansions. A notable M&A pact last year involved Tiedemann Wealth Management. To capture such trends, ECHELON Partners in June launched RIA Group, a new entity designed to manage businesses focused specifically on the registered investment advisor industry.
This publication recently interviewed the firm Dynasty Financial Partners about its work in helping finance developments in the RIA and related space.
