Concurrent Investment Advisors, a hybrid registered investment advisor with a 1099 affiliation model, has launched a minority stake division that has invested in two RIAs.
Tampa-based Concurrent’s RIA Capital Partners program provides strategic minority investments to RIAs to fuel succession planning, growth capital, or partial monetization.
The RIA has made its initial investments in Post Oak Wealth Partners, a $250 million RIA run by Rob Wyrick in Houston, and Oliver Capital Management, a Seattle-based RIA with $450 million in client assets run by Mark Oliver.
“There are a lot of smaller RIAs that are looking for growth capital that we can come alongside and be an investor in those businesses,” said Nate Lenz, CEO of Concurrent. “And we’re not just a capital partner, but have an experienced team that is walking in their shoes and can add immediate, tangible value.”
Concurrent has experience as a minority investor offering support through its 1099 model. Of the more than 70 firms in the network, the majority have chosen to take a minority stake from Concurrent, according to Lenz. But the difference with the RIA Capital Program is, it’s available to external RIAs.
“We started to run into a lot of RIAs that like elements of our proposition, but for whatever reason, it doesn’t make sense to roll down their ADV and come to us,” he said.
The conversation with potential firms starts with a consultative evaluation led by Concurrent’s Liz Lenz, Nate’s wife, looking at the firm’s structure, equity model, client experience, marketing and other areas.
From there, Concurrent can offer the funding to address those areas and relevant resources, ranging from a marketing rebrand to technology offerings that benefit from Concurrent’s pricing.
“We are a consulting-forward offering,” Lenz said. “We might help clean up the current employment agreements with staff, develop career pathing with junior team members, subsidize a team member to buy into the cap stack to become a partner at the firm, or they can use our investment platform.”
On the technology side, Lenz said firms might pick and choose offerings from Concurrent for their technology stack that they, as individual operators, might not otherwise have the right pricing to afford.
The new RIA Capital Program provides minority capital and support similar to that of Concurrent’s original investor, Merchant Investment Management. There are also some newer players on the RIA scene, such as Joe Duran’s Rise Growth, Karl Heckenberg’s Constellation Wealth Partners, and Jim Dickson’s Elevation Point.
However, Lenz notes that Concurrent is generally targeting smaller RIAs that wouldn’t be considered by other firms.
“We are playing downstream from the Emigrants and Rise Growths,” he said. “We still see a pretty big appetite for these smaller firms to access capital.”
Lenz said, based on the pipeline, that Concurrent should stake four to five more firms this year.
Concurrent was launched in 2017 as a Raymond James office of supervisory jurisdiction with investment backing from Merchant. In 2022, it split from Raymond James to go independent, with other firms joining through a 1099 affiliation model.
In the second quarter, Concurrent has added additional affiliate advisors with combined assets of $500 million. The most recent, Alden Capital Management, is based in Bellevue, Wash., and has $390 million in AUM.
Alden left Raymond James’ independent platform to make the move, and cited Concurrent’s “advisor-first culture,” flexible architecture, and operational support as drivers.
The RIA has more than $12 billion in assets under management and $14 billion in assets under administration through its retirement practice, which is led by former OneDigital executive David Montgomery.
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