RIA CapTrust Acquires Freedom One

Continuing its rapid expansion, CapTrust Financial Advisors, a large Raleigh, S.C. registered that serves private and institutional investors, acquired Freedom One Financial Group. Freedom One provides retirement plan and investment advisory services to companies in emerging markets.

“Both firms are leaders in the marketplace and together [form] one of the country’s largest consultants to all types of retirement plan sponsors,” Mark Wayne, Freedom One's founder, said in a statement. “We see this partnership as a real endorsement of the successful business we have built.” Wayne will assume a leadership position in the newly formed firm, according to CapTrust.

With $83 billion in assets under management, CapTrust generates revenues of about $65 million, 40% of which comes from its fee-based wealth management business and the balance on the institutional side, according to Senior Director of Marketing John Curry.

This is the second acquisition and third new office location in the past year for CapTrust, one of the leading independent retirement plan advisory firms. The acquisition brings the total number of the company’s offices in the U.S. to 19. The deal represents CapTrust’s strategic commitment to expanding its national footprint, attracting the industry’s best talent and deepening its expertise in full-service discretionary consulting and participant advice, the firm said in the statement.

Freedom One, headquartered in Clarkston, Mich., has nearly a 25-year history of providing unbiased investment advisory services to its clients—sponsors of defined contribution plans and individual investors, according to CapTrust. The firm offers a combination of model portfolios, strong employee education and advice, and fiduciary oversight. The Freedom One platform is expected to allow CapTrust to further scale its operations.

“We are thrilled to be a part of a company that will enable us to provide our services on a national basis and [that] shares the same passion for delivering best-in-class solutions to retirement plan sponsors,” Wayne said.

J. Fielding Miller, CapTrust co-founder and CEO, said in the same statement, “Our primary aim is to attract the industry’s top talent and our new colleagues from Freedom One Financial fit that role perfectly.”

CapTrust represents $83 billion in client assets with offices in Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
RIAs
MORE FROM FINANCIAL PLANNING