Advisory M&A

Innovest Expands West Coast Retirement Practice

 Investment consultancy Innovest Portfolio Solutions is expanding on the West Coast with the addition of Tomas Jansson as a vice president and retirement plan consultant.

Denver-based Innovest announced that Jansson, based out of San Francisco, will be joining the firm’s retirement plan practice group. He will focus on helping plan sponsors design, optimize and govern their workplace retirement plans.

Jansson joins the firm from a role as managing director of institutional consulting at First Republic Investment Management. Previously, he was vice president at Newport Group and a financial adviser with the Merrill’s private client group in San Francisco.

“With his significant retirement plan expertise and years of experience, Tomas will help us continue to provide our clients with the industry’s best retirement plan consulting services,” Wendy Dominguez, Innovest’s president and co-founder, said in a statement.

Investment managers and recordkeepers have expanded their retirement planning and product distribution capabilities to plan sponsors, both with internal promotions and through outside hiring, earlier this year. Principal Asset Management and T. Rowe Price expanded their retirement planning and product distribution capabilities, in July. Voya Financial appointed Shelly Nolfi and Holly Monday to the newly created positions of assistant vice president for client management and expansion, with both starting last week. 

Wealth Enhancement Group Acquires First Capital Advisors

Wealth Enhancement Group has acquired First Capital Advisors Group LLC, a registered investment advisory with $341 million in assets under management.

The acquisition will bring over First Capital managing partners Jim Hiles and Jeff Schulte, who operate out of Little Silver, New Jersey, and Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, respectively. The RIA offers financial planning, investment management, retirement planning and estate planning to high-net-worth individuals, business owners, executives and medical professionals.

Prior to co-creating First Capital, Schulte was a founding member of eMoney Advisor Inc. in May 2000. The firm was acquired by Fidelity Investments in 2015.

“In today’s wealth management space, being independent is a major advantage, but having state-of-the-art resources and a deep bench of experience to draw upon is vital to provide the optimum service for our clients,” Hiles said in a statement. “We believe that Wealth Enhancement Group provides those resources and will allow us to be extremely competitive in our marketplace.

The acquisition brings Minneapolis-based Wealth Enhancement to $70.8 billion in client assets, according to the announcement.

Latimer Wealth Management Joins Steward Partners

Steward Partners Global Advisory LLC is bringing on Latimer Wealth Management, with a team including Ted Latimer, partner, managing director and wealth manager, and Denise E. Hoffman, senior registered client administrative manager.

Latimer Wealth is based in Winter Park, Florida, and manages about $175 million in client assets. The acquisition will be Steward Partners’ second location in Florida, with “plans for further expansion in the state,” according to the announcement.

“We have tremendous growth plans in Florida, and doing so with a veteran, high-quality advisor like Ted exemplifies our partnership’s core values—a commitment to fostering a culture of excellence and conducting business with integrity,” Jeffrey Gonyo, managing director and Southeast senior divisional president, said in a statement.

Latimer Wealth specializes in working with high-net-worth individuals, families and business owners on areas including trust and estate planning services, risk management solutions, wealth management and retirement planning, and business planning solutions. Ted Latimer had worked as a senior vice president and senior financial adviser with Merrill since 2002 in central Florida. Hoffman has worked at Merrill since 1992 and was previously a registered senior wealth management client associate.

Sanford Joins Cetera, Bringing $110M in Client Assets

Cetera Financial Group announced that financial adviser David K. Sanford, based out of Springfield, Missouri, has joined the RIA, bringing more than $110 million in client assets under administration and assets under management.

Sanford offers wealth management and retirement planning to clients and has worked in the industry since 1997, when he founded Sanford & Associates CPA. He has also been affiliated with Cetera in the past, according to the announcement.

“I’ve worked with a Cetera community in the past, and I’m excited to be back under the umbrella with like-minded advisors and tax professionals, where I know my team will receive boutique services that allow us to offer unique and flexible strategies to help clients achieve their financial goals,” Sanford said in a statement.

Cetera has more than 8,000 financial professionals overseeing about $330 billion in assets under administration and $116 billion in assets under management.