A Boston-based wealth manager and multifamily office that oversees more than $1.3 billion in assets joined RIA consolidator Focus Financial Partners last week.
The publicly traded company said Friday that it had reached a definitive agreement with Foster Dykema Cabot & Co., an independent registered investment advisor, to become one of its partner firms. Terms of the deal, which is expected to close in the first quarter, were not disclosed.
It was the second RIA to partner with Focus Financial this year, after Lanham O’Dell & Company, the oldest privately held RIA in West Virginia, which manages roughly $652 million, joined in January. Three other wealth mangers have also joined Focus Financial as partner firms thus far in 2019.
Foster Dykema Cabot & Co.'s deal with Focus Financial will enable the RIA to operate as it has been while pursuing a long-term succession plan for the firm, Elizabeth Braudis, president of Foster Dykema Cabot & Co., said in a statement.
It's safe to assume part of that plan will include mergers and acquisitions by Foster Dykema Cabot & Co. Focus Financial Partners, an acquirer of RIAs that went public last summer, and its partner firms accounted for 21 deals in 2018, more than any other firm. In the company's first earnings call in August, Focus Financial’s founder and CEO Rudy Adolf called M&A the company’s “bread and butter.” In addition to its partner relationships with RIAs, the firm was designed to tangentially support partner firm deal activity.
Foster Dykema Cabot & Co. was founded in 1967 as an investment-focused advisor to several wealthy families. It has since begun offering more holistic wealth management services. The firm last reported having $1.375 billion in assets under management in March 2018.
Last year was a banner year for deal volume involving RIAs, with 181 transactions, 13 more than 2017. Investment bankers and other industry observers expect 2019 to top it.