A blend of forces have been driving M&A and corporate finance activity in the wealth management space. Dynasty's new offering is intended to tap into this and related areas of work.

This week, Dynasty Financial Partners said it was launching its investment bank, a sign of how the business wants to tap into its M&A and capital strategies capabilities.  

The investment bank will offer buy-side and sell-side advice for independent wealth management firms inside and outside the Dynasty network; it will also serve other types of firms that need advice in the wealth and asset management sphere.

The offering comes at a time of continued M&A and corporate activity in the North American wealth sector, even though the pace of deals has been curbed by rising interest rates.

The investment bank will offer services including expertise in mergers, acquisitions, sales and divestitures; advice on strategic opportunities including recapitalizations, strategic valuations and succession planning; RIA search and placement services; and M&A transition and integration.

“At Dynasty, we are facing substantial demand for M&A and investment banking services from advisors in our network and outside our network. Whether a CEO desires to acquire an RIA or tuck in a group of advisors, wants to explore selling their business, or is seeking a valuation to understand the value of their equity, RIA management teams seek high quality and objective advice,” Shirl Penney, CEO of Dynasty Financial Partners, said. “With our deep expertise and years of experience working with hundreds of leading advisors, we are well-positioned to offer RIAs a wide range of investment banking capabilities in this ever-complicated market.”

Harris Baltch, the head of Dynasty Investment Bank, said: “The independent wealth management industry has accelerated its pace of consolidation and maturation over the last decade.”

“The headwinds of aging advisors, the valuation gap of succession and a higher interest rate combined with the influx of different capital providers and a multitude of business models will create a long runway for consolidation in the years to come. We believe this will create significant opportunity to provide independent, objective advice to CEOs, management teams and investors to execute M&A from start to finish,” he said. 

Over the last 12 months, Dynasty has advised on over 14 transactions including the recent announcement by DayMark Wealth Partner’s tuck-in of a $450 million team and Americana Partners’ tuck-in of a $700 million team from major wirehouses in the US.

In December 2022 Dynasty closed a minority private capital raise. It added Abry Partners and Charles Schwab. In September it closed a $50 million credit facility from RBC Capital Markets, UMB Bank, JP Morgan, Citibank, and Goldman Sachs Bank that provides access to additional growth capital.

See this story here from July 2019 on the work Dynasty is doing to develop advisors – and ultimately its own business.