Osaic to buy fee-only RIA CW Advisors

Fresh off consolidating eight previously acquired broker-dealers under its brand, Osaic is embarking on its biggest M&A deal in years.

The independent broker-dealer announced Tuesday that it’s buying CW Advisors, an advisory firm in Boston with $13.5 billion in client assets and 140 employees in 17 offices. The deal, whose terms weren’t immediately disclosed, marks the sale of one private-equity owned firm to another receiving substantial private equity support.

Audax Private Equity, a Boston-based firm with $19 billion under management, bought a majority stake in CW Advisors in June 2023. Osaic, formerly known as Advisor Group, has been majority-owned by the private investment firm Reverence Capital Partners since 2019. 

CW Advisors was founded in 2009 (originally using the name Congress Wealth Management) as a fee-only firm, meaning advisors there do not charge commissions but rather make money chiefly from fees set at a percentage of the assets they have under management. Osaic said in a press release announcing the deal that CW Advisors will retain its name and methods of serving clients, remain operationally independent and continue to work with clients as a standalone RIA.

“CW Advisors brings tremendous strength in delivering an institutional-quality platform for fee-only RIAadvisors at the upper tiers of the wealth spectrum,” Osaic president and CEO Jamie Price said in a statement.

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Osaic builds out its direct employee channel

Osaic, for its part, has more than $700 billion in assets under administration and affiliations with more than 11,000 financial professionals. It completed in January a large internal consolidation it called its “Journey to One,” bringing under its single brand the former broker-dealers American Portfolios, FSC Securities, Infinex Investments, Royal Alliance Associates, SagePoint Financial, Securities America, Triad Advisors and Woodbury Financial Services.

By joining Osaic, CW Advisors will gain access to many of the services the larger firm has built up for working high net worth and ultrahigh net worth clients. Those include the trust specialist Premier Trust, which was acquired through its purchase of the Ladenburg Thalman group of five independent broker-dealers in 2020. The services for affluent clients also include the insurance and annuity specialist Highland Capital Brokerage.

The hands-off pledges Osaic is making in acquisition of CW Advisors bear many resemblances to similar promises its independent broker-dealer rival LPL Financial has made in its own recently announced plans to buy Commonwealth Financial Network later this year for $2.7 billion. LPL executives have repeatedly said they plan to maintain Commonwealth essentially as a standalone firm, with its brand and business model, under the larger LPL umbrella.

CW Advisors is joining Osaic’s Osaic Advisors unit, which is meant for advisors who want to be direct employees of the firm rather than independent contractors. Earlier this year, Osaic also added Payant Wealth Management Group, a registered investment advisor in Tampa, Florida, with $360 million under management, to its channel for direct employees.

Osaic noted that CW Advisors custodies its clients’ assets — or holds them for safekeeping — at both Fidelity Investments and Charles Schwab. Many of CW Advisors’ new clients also come through those two custodial firms’ large referral networks, which Osaic called a “compelling feature.”

“Joining forces with Osaic represents a pivotal step forward for CW Advisors,” CW Advisors CEO Scott Dell’Orfano said in a statement. “This partnership provides us with access to permanent capital that aligns with our long-term vision and the needs of our clients and advisors.”