RIA giant Stratos Wealth Holdings has bought into a $600m Florida RIA.
The $19bn Emigrant Partners-backed firm said Tuesday that it has taken a
minority stake in Summit Wealth Partners, which is based in Orlando. Stratos is
using its RIA acquisition vehicle, Stratos Wealth Enterprises, to consummate the
transaction.
Summit also has offices in Naples, Fla. and Grand Rapids, Mich.
Lou Camacho (pictured), the president of Stratos Wealth Holdings, did not
disclose a purchase price but said that the deal was an all-cash transaction and
that Stratos buys stakes of no less than 30% in its RIA minority investments.
Stratos said that its stake in Summit Wealth Partners is non-voting.
‘They were in a very attractive market for us, no question about that,’ Camacho
said of Summit Wealth Partners. ‘They were looking for a minority partner
where they’d be able to maintain their brand, their operating model and their
asset management structure. As the partnership matures, they may or may not
2/2 tap into more of our infrastructure — and if they do, fantastic. If they don’t,
that’s okay, too.’
Summit Wealth Partners is led by co-chief executives Jason Print and Chad
Warrick. Print, Warrick and Summit Wealth Partners general counsel William
Kovacs all have equity stakes in the RIA, though their exact percentages were
not disclosed.
In all, Summit Wealth Partners employs 18 people, six of whom are financial
advisors.
‘Numerous RIAs and aggregators have knocked on our door to propose joining
forces. We chose to partner with Stratos because the team there structured a
deal that gives Chad and I the freedom and flexibility to run our business in the
way we choose while leveraging Stratos’ significant scale, resources, and
expertise,’ Print said in a statement. ‘Chad and I still have decades to go before
we retire, and we firmly believe that the sky’s the limit in terms of our potential
thanks in large part to this strategic partnership.’
Headquartered in Beachwood, Ohio, Stratos maintains multiple business lines
under its holding company umbrella. Its most prominent business line is LPL
affiliate Stratos Wealth Partners, which oversees roughly $16.6bn in advisory
and brokerage assets. It also has a $1.9bn traditional RIA called Stratos Wealth
Advisors, as well as an in-house asset manager known as Fundamentum.
Emigrant Partners purchased a minority stake in Stratos in the spring of 2020.
For Stratos, the deal with Summit Wealth Partners is its first minority
transaction since May of 2020, when it took a minority stake in $650m Brown
Wealth Management, which was already affiliated with the company through
Stratos Wealth Partners.
Camacho indicated that more deals are around the bend. ‘We’re probably
working on four transactions,’ he said.