Old rivals Shirl Penney and Joe Duran finally find common ground with investment stakes in a $3.1 billion RIA that puts a 'tiger in the tank' to lure wirehouse breakaways

Two of the all-time alpha dealmakers in the RIA world – Shirl Penney and Joe Duran – did their first deal together this week, and now see each other as the X factor that made the unlikely transaction click.

Penney's Dynasty Financial Partners helped launch Cyndeo Wealth Partners in 2020 with an investment in the firm. Duran's Rise Growth Partners just announced a minority stake in the RIA, today (Mar. 11), making the old rivals… new partners.

Indeed, Dynasty is literally building a lift-out factory right across the street from Cyndeo, which RIABiz covered previously. See: In part to re-create the RIA version of the 'HOV,' Dynasty Financial refreshes plan for power-HQ to woo Wall Street brokers into becoming RIAs

The capability to do so with efficiency and volume was critical, says Duran in a phone interview upon landing back in California from Florida where he closed the deal. 

“We've been looking for a wirehouse lift-out team,” he says. 

“This positions us to be truly ambitious, particularly in lifting high-performance advisors out of the wirehouse environment and giving them independence without sacrificing scale or support.” 

Table stakes

Dynasty rolled over its investment as part of the deal, and the “in-house RIA” now has a tiger in its tank – Duran's growth playbook and his sack of cash. 

But Duran thinks he pounced on something just as big as well – a locked-and loaded, national breakaway acquisition firm that supports Rise's advisor recruiting, organic growth and Southeast expansion,” according to a deal release. 

Cyndeo scored an undisclosed sum – likely $10 million or more from Rise – to make the $3.1 billion RIA his vehicle for a pent-up pool of breakaway broker prospects. 

Cyndeo set up and minority-owned by Dynasty, is literally… in the house. The 2021 UBS breakaway is right up the elevator of the same St. Petersburg, Fla., building as its backer, technology provider and partner.

The RIA also fills a giant hole in the Rise arsenal that Duran acknowledged – the ability to fish the ever-abundant ocean of breakaways, or recent breakaways that landed, became dissatisfied and started looking for a new home.

Caught in irons

Rise had already established M&A growth hubs by taking minority stakes in OnePoint BFG Wealth Partners (formerly Bleakley Financial Partners), Grimes & Company and Krilogy. See: Joe Duran goes big on first-ever 'Rise' deal -- a $10-billion 'Schwab' RIA-- big enough that his business model just shifted with it

Yet, many of the prospects went unrecruited.

OnePoint, Grimes and Krilogy are not suited to bring aboard a classic $350-million breakaway broker seeking broader horizons in volume and greater prosperity.

And, there is a big supply of these advisors caught in irons and waiting for a phone call, according to Duran.

“They're kind of stuck at $350 million [of AUA] post-wirehouse,” he says.

Though Cyndeo focuses on the Southeast, Duran says he can recruit nationally under Cyndeo.

Looking for lift-outs

Penney says breakaway brokers are a critical building block for an M&A strategy in 2026. M&A is always about buying low and selling high. The RIA market is more about buying high and selling higher.

“You buy into these [breakaway] deals at a much lower multiple,” he says. “The standard [big] RIAs sell for multiples in the high teens to low 20s.”

Duran gets a special satisfaction in buying a stake in Cyndeo. He tried to buy the team 15 years ago, but at the time he was seeking to buy 100% stakes for United Capital. The minority stake model brings them together.

Dynasty did not sell any of its existing stake in Cyndeo. If Duran succeeds in driving growth, it will benefit as an owner.

Asked whether Cyndeo's special positioning with Dynasty could irk Dynasty customers further afield, Penney says Cyndeo ends up helping Dynasty RIAs broadly as a tourable demonstration site of how good life can be as an RIA.

Penney takes prospects from across geographies on a tour of the upstairs neighbor.

Enviable niche

Cyndeo President and Chief Executive Matt Kilgroe, says he can talk about life in and out of a wirehouse – and trusts Rise to understand the delineation.

“Having come from a wirehouse environment myself, I know how hard it can be for advisors to find true independence without sacrificing growth or autonomy," he says in a release. 

"Rise understands that balance. This partnership allows us to scale intentionally while continuing to deliver the breadth and depth of services necessary to compete in today’s environment.”

Cyndeo is already a big winner for Dynasty. It had $1 billion when Dynasty first bought in four years ago, and it has tripled in size. The firm is the rare billion-plus AUM RIA with “double-digit” organic growth, Duran say, plus it makes acquisitions. 

It has established an enviable niche of advising NBA and NFL athletes.

It works closely with their agents, business managers, CPAs and other trusted advisors to manage their compressed earning windows, complex tax considerations and shift to a career beyond sports.