Marty Bicknell grew to $100 billion AUM brick-by-brick, then -- boom -- added an AUA boulder, keeping Mariner Wealth in the AUA game with same-city rival Creative Planning
Mariner Wealth's purchase of two pension consultants with a combined $104 billion in AUA adds fees, services, footprint and a whopping top-line asset number north of $200 billion to keep it interesting in Overland Park.
4 min read- Mariner Wealth Advisors accelerates AUA growth by acquiring AndCo Consulting and Fourth Street Performance Partners.
- Deal adds $104 billion AUA and $5.2 billion AUM, creating Mariner Institutional.
- Acquisition provides Mariner access to pension consulting's lucrative retainer and asset-based fee models.
Brooke's Note: If you want to quickly add advisors to your RIA, consider an OSJ-style firm with IARs. But if you want a giant top-line boost in advised assets, buy a pension consultant. Marty Bicknell is now pursuing both strategies. He already bought the OSJ. See: After leaping to $110 billion AUA, Marty Bicknell sets hard date for Mariner to hit 5,000 advisors Now, he's buying two firms that will merge on day-one and nearly double his top line total. It will again thrust him further into the stratosphere of a tiny handful of RIAs with those kinds of dizzying totals. Still, ironically, it doesn't raise his ranking in his HQ town of Overland Park, Kan. Peter Mallouk still rules that roost with as much as $260 billion – in part because he bought a huge chunk of institutional assets recently to pad his totals. See: Creative Planning goes 'transformational,' buying $110 billion in retirement assets and crashing the elite Edelman Financial Engines, CAPTRUST party of business model ambidexterity
Mariner Wealth Advisors is starting to add AUA faster than it adds AUM with the simultaneous purchase of two institutional consultants with a combined $104 billion in AUA.
The deal includes about $5.2 billion of AUM.
The Overland Park, Kan., RIA is buying AndCo Consulting, which has $90.6 billion of assets under advisement (AUA), and Fourth Street Performance Partners, which has $4.5 million of assets under management (AUM).
“We truly believe we have found a partner in Mariner that shares the same philosophy, and I’m confident this opportunity will enhance the services we deliver to our existing clients," AndCo CEO and founder Mike Welker said in a release.
Enhancing outcomes
All of these new assets and about 100 new employees will be tumbled under a new entity, Mariner Institutional.
Marty Bicknell sells Tortoise stake for '$150 million' with cash already earmarked for four or five RIA purchases
The firm, with $122 billion under advisement, raised an undisclosed amount of capital with Leonard Green in 2021 and also about $150 million from the sale of Tortoise Investments in 2017. See: Marty Bicknell sells Tortoise stake for '$150 million' with cash already earmarked for four or five RIA purchases
“The complementary nature of our clients and services will support our joint growth and offer existing clients and prospects additional services that will help enhance the overall client outcome,” said Marty Bicknell, Mariner CEO and president, in a release.
Fat fees
Pension consultants are known to "advise" because so often they simply stand outside the assets and gatekeep which managers manage which pension assets – or other pools of institutional assets.
They also form asset allocations and “design” plans, often for fat fees.
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AndCo Consulting only charges by retainer, sending an invoice to clients for its services.
The Winter Park, Fla., consultant's annual fees can range up to $1 million annually or as low as $25,000, the firm's ADV2 states.
Creative Planning goes 'transformational,' buying $110 billion in retirement assets and crashing the elite Edelman Financial Engines, CAPTRUST party of business model ambidexterity
For clients deemed not to be “qualified purchasers” as defined in Section 2(a)(51)(A) of the Investment Company Act of 1940, fees generally range from $5,000 to $40,000.
Yet, AndCo was looking for a bigger company to enhance what it could offer, says Welker.
Client relationships
Mariner's other acquisition, Fourth Street Performance Partners, Inc., is a member of the Independent Advisor Group, a division of Callan Associates, Inc.
As of Dec. 31 last year, Fourth Street's client relationships represented a combined $8.3 billion in assets, its ADV reads.
Fourth Street charges a fee based on assets: 1.00% on the first $250,000; .75% on the next $250,000; .50% on the next $250,000; .30% on the next $14.25 million; 15% on the next $35 million and .05% on assets over $50 million.
Tremendous breadth
Mariner has tremendous breadth across wealth and asset management.
As of last April, staffing included 622 W2 advisors through Mariner Wealth Advisors; 456 self-employed (1099) advisors through the Mariner Advisor Network and 367 advisors working through its TAMP and CPA network, Bicknell confirms.
Mariner also employed 919 back-office staff to support its business, which administered $110 billion, up from $95 billion at year-end 2022, inclusive of assets under its management.
Fourth Street will merge with AndCo upon closing of the transaction, each maintaining their existing teams and focus on serving institutional clients under the Mariner Institutional brand.
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