Maridea Wealth Management, a Brooklyn-based registered investment advisor founded in 2023 and recently backed by private equity, has brought on more RIA experience by acquiring an advisory firm started by the founder of Motley Fool Wealth Management.
Hoot Wealth, a Colorado-based upstart, was launched by Motley Fool Wealth Management founder Nick Crow and Bryan Hinmon, the firm’s former CIO. It is so new that it’s not yet disclosing client assets. However, the four-person RIA was a draw for Maridea founder and CEO Meir Wang due to its leaders’ track records.
“We said to Nick, ‘you should [build this RIA] within Maridea,’” Wang said. “They’re joining us close to the ground floor with the capital raised, and a kind of blue ocean approach.”
Through the deal, Crow and Hinmon will join Maridea’s executive team, which, along with former hedge fund manager, investment banker and restaurateur Wang, includes senior advisors Larry Koehler, previously vice chairman of Hightower Advisors, and Dan Lidawer, co-founder and chief operating officer at Cresset Wealth Advisors.
Hoot, like other Maridea recruits, will take on the Maridea name.
Maridea announced in May that it had sold a stake to 119th Street Capital and Pelican Capital to fund acquisitions and partnerships. It followed that news in July with the acquisition of an LPL Financial breakaway based in Chicago, Pinnacle Wealth Management, which had about $200 million in assets under management.
Wang said Hoot will be able to leverage Maridea’s technology platform and investment capabilities. In the other direction, he characterized Crow as skilled at marketing and organic growth.
“Having that firepower within the Maridea executive team is going to be incredible,” he said.
Crow and Hinmon met as analysts at Motley Fool in 2010. In 2014, Crow launched the firm’s wealth management division to leverage its online brokerage platform, and then Hinmon joined to lead investing operations. In about 11 years, Crow and the team built the division to $2.3 billion in client assets.
The duo were familiar with Maridea because of their relationships with the firm’s president, Sean Sun, and an investment team member, Tom Jacobs, who had both worked at Motley Fool.
Wang said Maridea is leveraging its PE infusion to recruit firms with less than $1 billion in revenue, but high-growth advisor teams, with much of its recruitment coming from referrals.
“I think there are people out there who look at this industry as a great financial engineering exercise—you know, you can buy low, sell high,” Wang said. “We keep our heads down. We build small businesses and build them up. … We have a financial structure that makes sense for each partner, but they are joining us because they want to be an entrepreneur and build the business with us.”
Maridea has about 30 employees, including advisors, and over $600 million under management.
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