World Investment Advisors, an institutional and wealth-focused advisory firm that just recently renamed from Pensionmark Financial Group, has acquired Boston Harbor Wealth Advisors, a Westborough, Mass.-based team with $3.5 billion in assets, 76 team members and 15 offices in the Northeast and Ohio. The team was previously affiliated with Raymond James Financial Services, the firm's independent contractor channel.
Troy Hammond, CEO of World Investment Advisors, said the acquisition (and renaming) is indicative of his firm's evolution over the past two years. The RIA has $55 billion in total assets under advisement, but since being acquired by World Insurance Associates in March 2022, the asset side of its business has grown from about $1 billion in assets to almost $12 billion today. When it was acquired, the institutional consulting business accounted for about three-quarters of its revenue; today, the property business is about 65% of his income.
“Two and a half years ago, Boston Harbor probably wouldn't have been a good buy for us. Now that's a great buy. We have the infrastructure, we have the wealth platform to support a large wealth practice like this,” Hammond said. “We grew up as an institutional consulting firm and our name was Pensionmark, which fit very well with our core practice. But now, we are 65% wealth. We will probably be 90% wealth in the next three to five years.”
World has been very attractive, having done about a dozen deals in the last two years. Among them was Tomorrow's Financial Services, a Lincroft, NJ-based platform for financial planners and wealth advisors with about $4 billion in assets and 25 staff that it bought in October 2023. That included TFS Securities, a broker/dealer.
Last August, the firm bought Financial Solutions, an RIA in Waukesha, Wis., with about $950 million in assets.
Hammond said more acquisitions are to come as the firm continues to build its wealth side. Ninety-five percent of the deals his firm handles are focused on wealth.
Also in August, World Insurance Associates announced that Goldman Sachs Asset Management and Charlesbank would invest more than $1 billion in the company.