Maybe only Hollywood stands between Rudy Adolf and a $320-million golden parachute | FutureProof has a bit of SALT glitz | New wave of robo-advisors includes participants like Adam Nash, Kevin Durant and Barry Ritholtz

Rudy Adolf's end game is to pass go, collect massive check, but Hollywood types stand in the way -- reports

Rudy Adolf will participate in a probable exodus from the Focus Financial's executive suite as he cashes out in a $7 billion-plus sale, according to Wealthmanagement.com.

The Focus Financial  CEO's  exit payout may amount to $323 million if he cashes out alongside KKR, CityWire reports.

Adolf will need to scale at least one more hurdle on his way to his legendary and very final exit, according to legal filings.

The New York City private equity shop, Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, agreed to buy Focus for $53 a share in a late February – partly financed by Stone Point Capital. 

But none of this will happen – without paying the piper, allege at least 50 principals of Nigro Karlin Segal Feldstein and Bolno (NKSFB) in lawsuits.  

The plaintiffs charge Focus and Goldman Sachs with breach of contract, fraudulent concealment and other violations of California law in its sale to Clayton, Dubilier & Rice.  

Hollywood celebrity business manager Mickey Segal, one of the plaintiffs, alleges the companies undercut the potential sale of his own firm and defied their obligation to disclose their separate negotiations with bidders and the buyer. See: Focus Financial is pushing shareholders to take a take-it-or-leave-it private equity offer.

The suit was the subject of a ripping article in the Hollywood Reporter – of all places.

Non-compete at issue

Goldman and Focus "vigorously dispute" KSFB and NKSFB's claims. 

It counters that principals --Mickey Segal, in particular -- aimed to use the complaint amid the sale process as a means to wriggle NKSFB free from Focus "at a steep discount,” according to a May 15 filing. See: CD&R mollifies Focus Financial 'FOMO' with non-monetary sweetener.

NKSFB principals dispute this, however. 

Indeed, the June 7 suit filed by many of its principals alleges that Focus is illegally attempting to enforce a no-longer valid non-compete agreement signed by many NKSFB principals after Focus acquired the accountancy and advice shop in 2018. 

The suit alleges that the non-compete, updated by Focus in July 2022, is invalid under California law because its updated status is unconnected to the original sale agreement.

Negative impact

KSFB's March suit also alleges Focus and Goldman acted improperly by simultaneously pursuing an outright buyer for Focus Financial as well as NKSFB, creating a conflict of interest.

"The last thing KSFB wanted to do was share information with Goldman and Focus … as part of a separate deal for Focus…

"Such a sale would negatively impact the attractiveness of KSFB as an acquisition target," says Quinn Emanuel partner and attorney Diane Cafferata, in a court filing. 

The suit also alleges that Focus and Goldman moved to sell the whole Focus kit-and-kaboodle, despite an NDA and an agreement to use NKSFB data solely to facilitate NKSFB's sale.

Jeff Benjamin checks out of InvestmentsNews, checks into ETF.com

InvestmentNews is down to two senior writers after the departure of 23-year veteran Jeff Benjamin, amid the transition to new ownership. 

Bruce Kelly, who covers broker-dealers, and Mark Schoeff, who writes on legal and legislative matters from Washington, are the last holdovers from the Crain Communications era. 

Crain, which launched the publication in 1998, sold it to UK publisher Bonhill Financial Services in 2018 for an estimated $21 million.  

Bonhill struggled with the publication amid the pandemic and sold it to Key Media earlier this year. See: InvestmentNews gets booted to another overseas owner with scant financial publishing roots but Key Media's past 20 years are rooted in success, only paid $4.1 million and may find ample fat to cut

“Twenty-three years was a good run, but I'm on to a new challenge. I'm going to ETF.com,” Benjamin says in response to a LinkedIn query from RIABiz.

“I have nothing but good things to say about IN and Key Media. The new owners are smart, capable people and I have no doubt they will continue to push the IN brand to new levels of success.”

The promise of ETF.com held its own allure, Benjamin adds.

“ETF.com is focused on building out its new Advisor Center coverage, which will be my primary job. It's a great opportunity to take on a new challenge and work for Sean Allocca, who I worked with at InvestmentNews.”

An email to Key Media CEO Mike Shipley went unreturned. ETF.com is owned by ETFS Capital, a UK investment firm that owns several such ETF publications in the United States and Europe.

FutureProof is ready to prove its own immediate future

FutureProof Festival is set to prove it's the future of events – er “festivals” – by creating unity in the fragmented wealth management world.

It's a supermarket mentality of selling the kitchen sink.

“It is a non-traditional event that focuses on the larger and evolving wealth management ecosystem ... [and] the diverse subsectors align with our initial vision and how we plan to continue to build," says FutureProof organizer and Advisor Circle CEO, Matt Middleton, via email.

The Huntington Beach, Calif. multi-beach, multi-hotel, slather-on-sunscreen advisory business extravaganza is looking to build on its 2022 growth.

It's shooting this year for 10,000 attendees by 2025 by staying unbeholden to categories or preconceptions.

“Last year, Future Proof had almost 2,000 attendees. We expect a 50% increase in attendance in 2023, putting us on track to achieve our goal of having 10,000 attendees by 2025,” Middleton continues.

“Our first job was to eliminate the extensive fragmentation of the wealth management industry," he writes in a Sept. 2022 blog post following the first FutureProof conference.

"We did not want to be beholden to any group and believed the industry needed to remake itself through a new and unified community.” 

One sign: FutureProof has booked RIA B2B stars like Bill Crager and Shirl Penney along with investment product names like DoubleLine CEO Jeffrey Gundlach.

Leading industry commentator Michael Kitces and rappers, Method Man and Redman are also among the headliners. See: A week after he became chairman of Eric Clarke's board, Charles Goldman is heading the search to replace Clarke as Orion CEO-- at Eric's direction.

Middleton believes these draws and third-year momentum will have their intended effect.

Robots afoot?

Former Wealthfront CEO Adam Nash, who went next to Acorns, and one time basketball star Kevin Durant just became two of the lead backers of a financial planning robot, Plenty.

The robo aims to bring ‘advanced algorithms’ to the subsegment of married millennials. It did a $2.5-million pre-seed round.

Durant is not know to be married but is believed to make about $100 million per year, split fairly evenly between endorsements and salary. Those aren't acorns.

***

Meanwhile, Ritholtz Wealth Management has launched its own new robot for the mass affluent, three months after closing a client acquisition deal with legacy BlackRock-owned robo FutureAdvisor.

The new robot, Good Advice, is geared toward the mass affluent with fees of roughly 50 basis points and a $15,000 minimum investment. It will use Ritholtz proprietary portfolios.

It is unclear whether it will replace current Ritholtz robot Liftoff, which shares revenues with New York City robo-pioneer Betterment.

Woke up

In the banking world, LGBTQ+ neo-bank Daylight is set to close its doors, June 30.

The bank raised $15 million in fresh venture capital funds as recently as Nov. 2022, but the current “high interest rate environment," is triggering its closure, according to co-founder and CEO Rob Curtis.

"I did my best but am sorry," he says in a blog post.

Daylight has also recently become embroiled in a lawsuit alleging wage discrimination, whistleblower retaliation and fraud.

One former employee even described some of the bank's plans as “Handmaid’s Tale meets [a] queer bank," according to a New York magazine report.

Roll-up, roll-up

Adviser Investments just rolled up $6.5-billion AUM Ropes Wealth Advisors – eight years after it was spun out of an elite Boston law firm. See: After lassoing Banyan and Silver Bridge talent, Ropes & Gray launches $2.7 billion RIA to extend its legal brand to financial advice

Co-founded by long-standing Vanguard analyst and regular RIABiz commentator Dan Wiener, Adviser Investments' May acquisition is its second M&A deal in the last twelve months, following the purchase of $2 billion AUM Polaris Wealth Advisory Group.

The combined firms now manage roughly $15 billion.

Selling the brand

The ominously named RIA compliance roll-up COMPLY has a new marketing officer, Gayle Nixon, who will help sell the brand to RIAs. 

COMPLY, formerly ComplySci, snaffled up RIA compliance outsourcers RIA in a Box and National Regulatory Services in late 2021.

***

SEI Investments has also just moved to improve its marketing. 

The Oaks, Pa. outsourcer just signed a marketing deal with the Philadelphia Phillies baseball team, one month after it promised to “get loud in the RIA space.” See: With a 'loud' RIA custody outburst under ex-Schwabbie, SEI piles onto a mob effort to break Schwab/TDA RIA custody stranglehold.