Homrich Berg, an Atlanta-based RIA integrator with $25 billion in assets, has launched an equity participation program for non-shareholder employees and new hires.
Employees who participate in the program will benefit from any liquidity event or recapitalization. TPG Growth and New Mountain Capital, the RIA’s minority investors, supported the initiative. Homrich Berg has 240 non-shareholder employees, the firm said.
“This program is about building a firm that rewards people not just for their day-to-day performance but for their contribution to HB’s long-term success,” Homrich Berg CEO Thomas Carroll said in a statement. “As we grow, we want our team to feel recognized and appreciated for their hard work and motivated to stay invested in our mission.”
The RIA will also offer equity to new hires as part of their compensation package.
“Employee ownership is a meaningful way to strengthen company culture and drive long-term performance,” David Trujillo, co-managing partner of TPG Growth, said in a statement.
Homrich Berg built the program with Ownership Works, a nonprofit that helps companies launch broad-based employee ownership programs.
Several RIAs have launched equity participation programs for employees in recent years. In 2022, Private Advisor Group, the Morristown, N.J.–based RIA and office of supervisory jurisdiction affiliated with LPL, rolled out an Advisor Alignment and Equity Program, with help from Merchant, its minority backer, to provide its 700 advisors with direct economic stakes in the RIA.
In March, Bleakley Financial Group, a hybrid RIA with about $12 billion in client assets, launched an equity program and transitioned 80% of its AUM to an equity partnership. That followed a minority investment by Rise Growth Partners, the RIA investing company launched by former United Capital CEO Joe Duran. (Bleakley announced Tuesday that it was rebranding to OnePoint BFG Wealth Partners.)
Last September, executives at Homrich Berg sold a minority stake in the firm to TP Growth, the middle market and growth equity platform of TPG, a San Francisco-headquartered private equity firm. That deal valued the RIA at around $1 billion, according to a Reuters report. New Mountain Capital made a minority investment in 2021.
In June 2022, Homrich Berg completed a debt capital revolver, raising $75 million through a multi-bank syndication led by First Citizens Bank. That deal allowed Homrich Berg to maintain majority control of the firm.
This follows news earlier this month that Homrich Berg opened a new office in Greenville, S.C., with Robert DiBenedetto joining the firm as a wealth advisor. He was previously with Bernstein Private Wealth Management.
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