Dynasty Financial Partners announced that DayMark Wealth Partners has become the most recent independent advisory firm to leverage Dynasty’s platform of technology-enabled wealth management solutions and business services to find independence.
The founding seven partners previously worked together at Wells Fargo’s Cincinnati office, managing $1.4 billion in client assets. They include two executives, Mike Quin and DayMark General Counsel Steven L. Satter, and five financial advisors: Robert E. Prangley II, P.J. Boland, Jason M. Beischel, Mike Larison and Daryl J. Demo. They will also be bringing seven additional support staff.
Long-time friends, the seven DayMark founders wanted greater independence—a fuller range of options to offer their clients; cutting-edge, modular technologies; the ability to be more innovative; and more opportunities to create organic growth—and they began by simply exploring what independence from a wirehouse, where each had spent their entire career, could look like.
“After doing a bunch of due diligence,” said Quin, “we ultimately decided that going purely independent was the right way to go. It was important for us to own our company, our client experience and our ADV.”
At that point, he said, it became a discussion of how to achieve those goals—which led to more due diligence. They would need to solve the logistical problems of middle- and back-office support, marketing, custody, compliance, technology, and a host of other issues that could have commanded attention they wanted to concentrate on their clients.
“We landed with Dynasty for a lot of reasons,” Quin said. “They understood where we were trying to go, kind of right from the beginning. And we felt like they were partners who wanted to support us, versus having another agenda. You learn a lot about what’s important to you when you go through a process like this. We partner with Dynasty in a bunch of areas, basically, but in full support of us.”
He knows their model is unique, he said, “because we looked at pretty much everything out there.”
Dynasty has taken on operations, technology, trading, real estate, staffing, marketing and more for the new firm. “Everything in the background,” said Quin. “We make the choices, but those choices are kind of powered by Dynasty so we can stay out front with our clients and continue to grow, organically and also inorganically.”
The partnering founders (there is no CEO) resigned from their positions at Wells Fargo earlier this week, and Quin seems confident that they will retain most of their clients. While the ultimate intention is to embark on an inorganic growth strategy, where they will focus on bringing in like-minded advisors, their first priority is to focus on the clients that follow them to DayMark and implement organic growth strategies.
When DayMark begins bringing on new advisors and firms, Quin envisions offering different options.
“We don’t want to be all things to all advisors, but we are looking for elite teams who are very focused on client results,” said Quin, suggesting that a desire for flexibility and greater autonomy are a hallmark of advisors entering the RIA space. “They’ll be able to either tuck in under the DayMark Wealth Partners brand and leverage all the work we’ve already done or leverage our platform through Dynasty, along with some financing from us, while keeping their own identity.”
“We expect DayMark to be a preferred destination for multi-generational families, entrepreneurs, corporate executives, and business owners,” Dynasty CEO Shirl Penney said in a statement announcing the partnership. “They will also be a premium choice for advisors seeking partnership, professionalism and integrity in their new firm. We anticipate that DayMark will grow fast both organically and inorganically and we believe they are the type of firm that represents the wealth management boutique of the future."
DayMark’s clients include business owners, corporate executives, and high-net-worth families with multiple generations—four or five, in some cases. Specialties of the firm’s advisors include generational transfer; charitable giving strategies; concentration risk reduction; tax optimization; succession planning; executive benefits; and retirement and corporate stock distribution.
The firm will use both Charles Schwab and Purshe Kaplan Sterling for custody and clearing services.
“The launch of DayMark signals another significant stage in the evolution of the wealth management industry,” said Dynasty’s Director of Business Development John Sullivan. “Increasingly, we are seeing executives in management positions and larger, more sophisticated teams choosing independence as the path that best benefits advisors and their clients.
“We anticipate that DayMark Wealth Partners will build one of the industry's truly significant, professional wealth management firms and we look forward to partnering with them."