Four registered investment advisers in the Focus Financial Partners network have left the Broker Recruiting Protocol, an industry agreement that allows advisers some leeway in taking client data with them when they switch firms.
Icon Wealth Partners, a Houston-based RIA with about $2 billion in total assets as of Dec. 31, withdrew from the pact on Nov. 1, according to JS Held, a global consultancy that administers the protocol.
Founded in 2017, Icon joined the Focus partnership in 2022. He provides advice to more than 3,000 high net worth families, business owners, corporate executives, law firms and foundations nationwide. In addition to providing investment advice and management, as well as financial planning services, the firm also focuses on business strategy, exit planning, and tax and estate strategies.
Edge Capital Partners, an Atlanta-based RIA with about $9 billion in total assets as of Dec. 31, filed earlier this month to withdraw from the protocol on Nov. 16. The firm, which focuses on extremely high net worth clients, joined Focus in 2018. It was founded in 2006 by Bert Rayle, Harry Jones, Bill Maner, Paul Izlar, Peek Garlington and Will Skeean, who previously had careers with Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley.
New York-based Seasons of Advice Wealth Management, an RIA with about $1 billion in assets, also filed earlier this month to exit the Nov. 16 deal. In 2020, Seasons of Advice became the 67th Focus purchase. Charles Hamowy, Christopher Conigliaro and Matthew Woolf founded RIA in 2017.
One Charles Private Wealth, a Hingham, Mass.-based RIA with about $715 million in assets, also exited the protocol on Nov. 14. One Charles was founded in 2015 by Paul Squarcia Jr. and became a partner of Focus that same year. Before founding the firm, Squarcia was a 15-year veteran of Merrill Lynch.
Last year, Focus was taken private a sale to the private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice. Since then, executives have been busy cleaning up its sprawling operation, consolidating 90 independently operated subsidiary practices in a handful of its larger brand firmsincluding The Colony Group and Kovitz Investment Group.
Brian Hamburger, president and CEO of MarketCounsel, said he wasn't sure firms leaving the protocol was a direct signal that a buyout was imminent. Colony, for example, is no longer on the protocol, so there would be no need for those other firms to come out.
“Depending on the structure of the acquisition, usually companies are not left untouched,” Hamburger said. “In most of the acquisitions you're looking at, even between subsidiaries, they're buying assets because they want to have operational efficiencies. As a result, these practices would only be harmonized by the purchase itself. The question is, is there an even larger transaction where these firms are leaving the protocol?”
A spokesman for Focus and the executives of the four VNRs did not respond to requests for comment before publication.