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Concurrent Investment Advisors, the Tampa, Fla.-based OSJ-turned-RIA restructured by Nate Lenz, Scott Steele and Kevin McFarland late last year, has landed the largest partner firm in its six-year history.
Founded in 2020 by Ross Ramsey and Corley Watson III as an office of supervisory jurisdiction on Raymond James’ independent broker/dealer platform, the six-advisor Lumature Wealth Partners team manages about $700 million in client assets, bringing in around $6.2 million in annual revenue.
Prior to founding Lumature, Watson and Ramsey worked together at a registered independent advisory firm founded by Watson that was acquired by United Capital in 2013. They became part of Goldman Sachs following its acquisition of United Capital in 2019 and were the first United Capital team to leave Goldman, according to Lenz. Due to a noncompete clause, they waited three years to re-enter the independent RIA space with the move to Concurrent.
Lumature has offices in Atlanta, Ga., and Charleston, S.C., and provides a range of wealth management, planning and consultation services regarding finances, investing, insurance, trusts and estates, philanthropy, business and education to around 575 individual clients, per a recent ADV.
Concurrent—which operated as a large OSJ under Raymond James until breaking ties to reorganize as a multicustodial, hybrid RIA last year—was introduced to the Lumature team by a business development representative at Fidelity, Concurrent’s primary custodian.
“Concurrent’s partnership model particularly resonated with us, as it preserves our brand integrity and independence,” Ramsey told WealthManagement.com. “We weren’t interested in giving up what makes us unique or joining an acquirer who might not understand the relationships we have with our clients.”
“We’re not working toward conformity,” Lenz said. “We like the co-branding structure, where they’re ‘powered by Concurrent.’ I think that plays well for advisors they might be looking to affiliate or acquire, but also end clients because they can brand themselves and tell their story to the segment of the market they serve.”
Lenz said Lumature has plans to embark on an inorganic regional growth strategy, recruiting talented advisors and acquiring other firms in the nation’s Southeast. To that end, the team will tap into Concurrent’s mergers and acquisitions capabilities, including on-staff recruiters.
“It became very clear very quickly that there were some great synergies that would exist between our firms,” he said.
Ramsey also cited Concurrent’s in-house research and operational support as attractions, saying they will “boost” services already received by existing clients.
“We’re thrilled to see Concurrent growing at such a compelling pace,” said Rohit Mahna, head of client growth at Fidelity Institutional Wealth Management Service. “We look forward to continuing to offer robust solutions that propel them forward.”
Lumature officially joined Concurrent on Sept. 29 and became the 31st firm on the rapidly growing platform, which is on track to meet its goal of $17 billion in cumulative assets by the end of the year. Prior to this deal, Concurrent was managing more than $16 billion in client assets—about $10 billion in retirement plan assets and $6.05 billion in individual accounts.
The addition represents the first step in a new expansion strategy for the firm, which currently spans 36 offices in 20 states.
“We’re excited about Lumature because it gives us a hub in Atlanta,” said Lenz. “We’re looking for market leaders in these attractive areas and they’ve got an existing infrastructure, an existing staff, office space. It’s our opinion that we can really help them grow inorganically.”
“Another key distinction with us is we don’t do full acquisitions at the Concurrent level for succession purposes,” he added.
Backed by Merchant Investment Management, Concurrent has taken a minority non-controlling stake in all but two of its partner firms and offers equity to all affiliates. The firm hasn’t done any full acquisitions, preferring to bring on partners like Lumature in an equity swap transaction, and there is no W-2 option.
Lenz said Concurrent would consider a full acquisition in a case where the advisor intends to stay on for the near term, but the firm isn’t set up to absorb the clients of a departing advisor.
“But our teams are,” he said. “We’re not competing with them for those opportunities and so we need them in those markets for us to capitalize on them. You have this aging demographic of advisors and there’s going to be a lot of opportunity.
“There are a lot of advisors that want to be independent but also want to plug in and be a part of a local brand that has some recognition in their community,” Lenz said. “So, when we plant a flag like we’re planting with Lumature, it gives us a beachhead in a new market that we can grow and expand upon.”
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