M and A
Wealth Firms Combine To Build $7 Billion-Plus Business
The merger builds a business - based in Akron, Ohio - that holds more than $7 billion of assets and one of the larger wealth sector M&A deals of recent weeks. The transaction continues a busy period of consolidation in the industry.
Sequoia Financial Group and WEALTHSTONE ADVISORS are to merge, creating a combined organization with more than $7 billion of assets and about 110 staff. The enlarged business will be based in Akron, Ohio.
The merger is expected to be completed in the second quarter of this year. The firms did not disclose financial terms.
Together, the businesses will offer financial planning, wealth management, asset management and business consulting services to clients and their families.
WEALTHSTONE principals Jim Wyland, Norm Cook, Brian Stertzer, and Jack Zhang will become shareholders of Sequoia. Akron, Ohio-based Sequoia was formed in 1991 and had about $5.75 billion in assets under management as of March 31, 2021. Columbus, Ohio-based WEALTHSTONE, founded in 1977 by Jim Wyland, managed around $1.4 billion in assets as of March 31.
M&A activity in the North American wealth management sector continues to be strong, as recently chronicled by ECHELON Partners, a California-based investment bank and advisory firm which tracks the sector, and DeVoe & Company. In its report on first-quarter 2021 transactions, DeVoe reported 58 transactions in Q1 2021, against 159 for the whole of last year. (See its report on 2020 here.)
“These results indicate that the industry is moving out of the Surge — the third of Four Phases of Post-COVID RIA M&A DeVoe & Company forecasted in our Q1 2020 Deal Book,” DeVoe said. “The shock of COVID created a lull of activity, before sellers sold in progressively higher numbers through the balance of 2020. The Surge crested in January as dozens of sellers raced to close transactions either before the end of 2020 or early 2021 - at least in part to insulate themselves from potential tax increases under the Biden administration.”
“The industry is now catching its breath. DeVoe & Company anticipates M&A activity will soon recalibrate to the Normalcy of Stage 4: a milder, though sustained, upward curve lasting for at least another five to seven years,” the firm said.
