A Connecticut-based financial advisor duo that manages $585 million in assets is merging with DayMark Financial Partners, a member firm of Ohio-based Dynasty Financial Partners.
Thomas Hofstetter and Daniel Baron co-run the Southport, Conn. Hofstetter Baron Group, and are being joined by DayMark from Wells Fargo. The pair work with high-net-worth individuals and families, with Baron saying that joining DayMark and Dynasty will help strengthen the “in-depth” planning their clients need.
“The RIA space has matured to the point where we can offer our clients even more than they've come to expect,” Baron said.
Hofstetter and Baron both have decades of experience in the industry. According to SEC data, Hofstetter entered the industry in 1993 with Salomon Smith Barney, with multi-year posts at UBS, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo before landing at DayMark. Baron joined Bear Stearns in 1997, with stops at Charles Schwab, UBS, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo, according to the SEC.
DayMark is based in Cincinnati, with approximately $2.5 billion in assets under management prior to the acquisition, while holding custody with Fidelity and Schwab. The firm started in June 2022, when seven Wells Fargo advisors was detached from the wire to form the signature. The advisors worked out of Wells' Cincinnati office, collectively managing about $1.4 billion in assets. But they soon decided to go independent, choosing to partner with Dynasty to help with middle and back office support, marketing, custodial, compliance and technology needs.
Wells Fargo did not take kindly to the departures; the wire has sued Steven Satter, a former in-house counsel for the firm, in September 2022 for allegedly helping seven advisers leave and start DayMark. (He also allegedly joined them to work there; DayMark's site lists Satter as a managing partner.)
According to the lawsuit, the advisers set up shop in an office a few miles from their previous Wells Fargo location. The Wirehouse also claimed it would open arbitration proceedings against the advisers (the most recent move in the case was between the parties fighting dual motions to dismiss the claims against the other in early 2023).
Dynasty founder and CEO Shirl Penney said that the firm was on track to reach $100 billion in assets across its partner firms until July 2024 last year during Dynasty's annual investor forum. Dynasty's network currently stands at 55 independent firms (with more than 370 advisors) and $87 billion “in its core technology platform,” according to a Dynasty spokesperson.
In February, the firm hired Tim Oden, a former managing director of business development at Schwab Advisor Services, as its 2024 executive residence; Oden left Schwab last year after more than three decades. Last month, a team of six advisers with $550 million in collectively managed assets left Merrill Lynch to create dynasty-backed Birmingham, Ala.-based Fairvoy Private Wealth.