Ex-UBS group drops wirehouse for Arkadios

Two veteran wirehouse monetary advisors managing $350 rtp live million in shopper property with Swiss banking large UBS launched an unbiased advisory observe with Arkadios Capital.

Stewart Webb and Gerald Garner of Birmingham, Alabama-based Webb Garner Wealth Companions joined the persevering with stream of wirehouse brokers into the business’s unbiased channels by dropping UBS for Arkadios, a fast-growing midsize brokerage that has greater than 160 advisors in 42 places of work with $8 billion in shopper property seven years after opening in 2016. Arkadios unveiled its newest incoming group this week amid a flurry of recruiting strikes, M&A offers and govt appointments reflecting the aggressive combat for unbiased advisors.

“We needed to determine a agency that locations our shoppers and their communities on the forefront,” Garner stated in a press release. “After spending 25 years with huge Wall Road brokerage companies, we aspired to not solely construct an unbiased agency that gives our shoppers the identical services they’re accustomed to, however we additionally needed to create a tradition of flexibility, distinctive options and boutique service.”

Representatives for UBS declined to touch upon the group’s transfer. Regardless of ending the primary quarter with 6,147 brokers within the Americas unit of the agency’s International Wealth Administration division — a internet lack of 98 advisors from the year-ago interval — UBS has introduced seven new incoming groups in current weeks together with one which managed $2.5 billion in client assets at Merrill and a duo of advisors who switched from Wells Fargo Advisors.

Groups in movement
Groups exiting wirehouses altogether stay a key driver of growth at unbiased companies reminiscent of Arkadios and New York-based Snowden Lane Partners. The latter agency reached $10 billion in client assets with 75 advisors in 13 places of work final week by recruiting the founding father of a registered funding advisory agency with $420 million in property below administration.

After topping that milestone a dozen years for the reason that agency’s launch, Snowden Lane expects to amass its subsequent $10 billion inside three years, CEO Rob Mooney stated in an interview. His agency and its personal fairness backer, Estancia Capital Companions, secured a new $100 million credit facility in January because it continues ramping up its recruiting of wirehouse and unbiased groups.

Snowden Lane is tapping into the “outflow of advisors from the massive companies, from the wirehouses” and “a chance within the unbiased house for advisors who’ve already gone unbiased,” Mooney stated. “We expect, as we achieve scale, we’ll additionally appeal to people who find themselves operating their very own RIAs and determine that they are higher at observe administration than they’re at operating an organization.”

Rivals to Snowden Lane and Arkadios have been including groups and executives by means of recruiting and M&A offers as extra personal fairness companies and different buyers race into the business.

The lure of recent companies
This week alone, LPL Financial, Raymond James, Ameriprise, Tru Independence and Atria Wealth Options’ CUSO Financial Services disclosed at least one new team coming to the companies. Cetera Financial Group’s parent company, Cetera Holdings, and Wealthspire Advisors, an NFP agency, every made offers to amass RIAs with greater than $1 billion in property. And Ed Swenson, the co-founder of Dynasty Monetary Companions, left the RIA platform for a newly created role as president of Advisor Group RIA Options.

In a sign of the attractiveness of RIAs to buyers, Altas Companions agreed to purchase a minority stake of undisclosed measurement in Mercer Advisors alongside Genstar Capital and Oak Hill Capital and 300 workers which have shares within the Denver-based agency. Mercer acquired a valuation of greater than $3 billion as a part of the funding by Altas, which expects to amass over $1 billion in widespread fairness, business information outlet Financial Advisor IQ reported.

Mercer has topped $48 billion in shopper property as one in every of the business’s most lively RIA consolidators, up from solely $5.7 billion in 2015 and $16.5 billion at its final recapitalization within the fourth quarter of 2019.

“We’re excited to welcome Altas Companions as a strategic investor,” Mercer CEO Dave Welling stated in a press release. “Now we have had an impressive partnership with Genstar and Oak Hill for a few years and selected Altas as our latest strategic investor as a result of they consider in our mission, function, and technique and are dedicated to assist continued funding in capabilities that can enable us to reinforce the way in which we serve our shoppers.”

Arkadios has been increasing in recent times as properly, though the Atlanta-based agency hasn’t acquired any exterior infusions of capital from personal fairness companies alongside the way in which.

In 2021, annual income at Arkadios soared by 54% yr over yr to $60.8 million, which made the agency No. 3 in enterprise progress amongst all firms in Monetary Planning‘s IBD Elite rankings of the most important unbiased brokerages. Arkadios founder David Millican spent greater than 20 years as an unbiased advisor earlier than his agency led the way in which amongst a small group of former branches of main companies which have cut up off to kind their very own brokerages.

The most recent incoming group selected Arkadios so as to increase its custom-made providers for shoppers, in line with the agency’s announcement. Webb and Garner began within the enterprise in 1998 with Salomon Smith Barney, then merged collectively their practices in 2006 earlier than transferring to UBS three years later, FINRA BrokerCheck reveals.

“We’re thrilled to welcome Stewart Webb and Gerald Garner to the Arkadios household. This partnership not solely permits us to be taught from their experience but in addition offers us with a chance to assist them take their enterprise to the following degree,” Millican stated in a press release. “Moreover, establishing a big presence in Birmingham aligns completely with our strategic progress plans.”