RIA aggregator Focus Financial Partners has announced a new corporate brand and brand structure for its “hub” firms, rebranding those businesses as Focus. As a result, The Colony Group and Buckingham Strategic Wealth will operate as Focus Partners Wealth, while Buckingham Strategic Partners, the RIA's asset management platform, will now be Focus Partners Advisor Solutions.
About a year ago, Focus drew up an ambitious plan to consolidate about 90 independently operated subsidiaries into a handful of larger firms that would operate as hubs. This followed the firm's decision to go private a sale to private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice. All three founders of Focus, including former COO Rajini Kodialam, former head of M&A Lenny Chang and CEO Rudy Adolf, left around that time.
So far, 14 RIAs have been consolidated into one of the five centers.
Now, the firm aims to standardize the brand in those centres. Earlier this month, Focus called Cardinal Point Capital Management as its fifth center. Under the new brand, Cardinal Point will now be known as Cardinal Point, Focus Partners Canada.
Other centers include Kovitz Investment Group, which has been rebranded as Kovitz, a Focus Partners Firm; SCS Financial, now SCS Financial, Focus Partners Family Office and OCIO; AND Gelfand, Rennert & Feldmanwhich will operate as Gelfand, Rennert & Feldman, Focus Partners Business Management.
The firm has also redesigned its corporate logo and website “to reflect the further unification of the firms across its network, including each of their individual brand colors,” according to a statement.
“Our goal is for our clients to experience us as a company built just for them, and for our advisors to experience the empowerment of being equipped with the skills and resources typically offered only by the world's largest institutions,” said Michael Nathanson. , CEO. of Focus Financial Partners, in a statement. “When people see or hear the name Focus Partners, that's the experience we want to evoke. Our redesigned logo also aims to reinforce that connection. Its colors reflect the many colors historically used by our partner firms, and its structure represents the energy and collective capabilities that Focus provides through its ecosystem of interdependent, loyal advisory teams.”
In the last year, Focus has continued to consolidate partner firms, including merger of Colony Group with GW & Wadea Massachusetts-based RIA with $10.4 billion in assets under management. Last year, Focus combined The Colony Group with partner firm Buckingham Strategic Wealth to create a $50.2 billion RIA.
In June, Focus moved the US base of Connectus Wealth Advisers business lines in the Colony Group and Kovitz Investment Group Partners. Kovitz then bought the partner firm for $2.6 billion Group of relative value partnersbringing Kovitz to more than $24 billion in assets.
in October, Kovitz acquired Fort Pitt Capital Groupa $5.9 billion Pittsburgh-based Focus partner firm. The deal boosted Kovitz's assets to nearly $30 billion.