Dynasty Financial Partners, the St. Petersburg, Fla.-based services firm for registered investment advisors, has launched an investment banking initiative aimed at wirehouse breakaways with $1 billion or more in assets. The company’s partnering with Diamond Consultants, the advisor recruiting firm, on the new venture.
“We see a growing need for investment banking services from large, sophisticated teams looking to evaluate their strategic options versus taking a recruiting check from a wirehouse or accepting a buyout offer,” Shirl Penney, founder and CEO of Dynasty, said in a statement. “Our mission is to empower independent RIAs and, as advisor teams become more advanced, we are uniquely positioned to help them professionalize, operationalize and de-risk their businesses sooner.”
The Breakaway Investment Banking Initiative seeks to combine Diamond’s industry relationships and experience transitioning wirehouse teams to independence with Dynasty’s RIA investment banking expertise. They provide advice to elite wirehouse teams on multiple paths, including transitioning to another W-2 firm, launching an independent RIA, selling, merging and raising growth capital.
Dynasty launched its investment bank in 2023 and advised on 15 M&A and capital-raising deals last year. That includes cross-border public company M&A, domestic sell-side transactions, strategic recapitalizations, valuations and capital raising.
Diamond has transitioned over $400 billion in assets under management over the last 10 years.
“We built this offering because we saw a major gap in the market,” Louis Diamond, CEO of Diamond Consultants, said in a statement. “Boutique investment banks are adept at helping RIAs with transactions, but no one was guiding elite advisor teams through the more fundamental decision of what they actually want to do next. Whether that’s transitioning to another W-2 firm, launching an independent enterprise, or exploring a sale or recapitalization, our mission is to deliver objective, strategic advice across all paths—not just one.”
Last month, OpenArc Corporate Advisory, an Atlanta-based firm with $129 billion in assets, launched an RIA on the Dynasty platform. Formerly part of Merrill Lynch’s Global Corporate and Institutional Advisory Services unit, the move was facilitated by Diamond Consulants, and is now the subject of litigation. Merrill sued Dynasty, OpenArc’s lead advisors and its custodian Schwab for allegedly breaching the Protocol for Broker Recruiting in how they handled proprietary client information, prospecting and communication with other advisors who joined the firm. A judge denied Merrill’s request for a temporary restraining order against OpenArc, and the suit will now move to FINRA arbitration.
link