Focus to Consolidate
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Under new ownership, Focus Financial Partners is expected to merge around 90 independently-operated subsidiary practices into a handful of its largest firms, according to industry sources.
The strategy, hinted at in a press release last week, would be similar to approaches recently taken by other massive aggregators such as Corient (previously CI Financial ) and Osaic (formerly Advisor Group ), both of which have moved to consolidate large ecosystems of independent practices into a larger enterprise under a single brand.
In Focus’ case, however, sources tell WealthManagement.com the company is likely to roll up all of its loosely affiliated businesses, each operating under their own brand, their own SEC registration and largely responsible for their own operations, into a handful of existing firms, which will likely include Buckingham Strategic Wealth and Focus Partners Wealth .
Earlier this year, Focus was taken private in a sale to private equity firm CD&R —and four personnel announcements last week were reflective of a “strategic evolution as a private company toward a more cohesive organization that seeks a common purpose, higher levels of collaboration, and which operates with greater levels of efficiency for the benefit of its partner firms,” the company said in a statement.
Continue Reading:?Sources: Focus Financial Firms To Consolidate
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WM: What recent investment allocation changes has your firm made?
We added some equity exposure in August and will likely add a little more soon. We’ve been overweight stocks all year and continue to see no recession and likely a continuation of the bull market. The August and September volatility hasn’t been fun, but we can’t say it wasn’t a surprise either. After the best first seven months to a year since 1997 for the S&P 500, some seasonal weakness these two months made sense.
WM: In what areas of the market are you taking risk off?
We remain overweight equities, but also remain underweight bonds. We’ve been this way all year, and bonds are still an area that we’d be underweight. To us, rates are staying higher for longer as the economy improves; this could continue to put pressure on fixed income in general.