ST. LOUIS, Mo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--BAM Advisor Services, part of the Buckingham Family of Financial Services (St. Louis, Mo.) has agreed to join forces with Loring Ward (San Jose, CA). This transaction represents the coming together of two industry leaders in the Advisor Services industry.
After the closing of the transaction, which is anticipated for later in 2018 and subject to customary closing conditions, the combined organization will serve more than 300 Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) along with thousands of financial advisors across the United States – advisors who, collectively, serve tens of thousands of individual clients. As the result of this transaction, the Buckingham Family of Financial Services will add approximately $17B of regulatory assets.
But it’s a story of much more than numbers. This transaction represents the uniting of similar cultures, seasoned leadership, talented teams, and a wide range of operational, investment, and practice management offerings that help financial advisors achieve more for their businesses and deliver more for their clients.
Buckingham Family of Financial Services CEO Adam Birenbaum and Loring Ward CEO Alex Potts shared a professional comradery for many years. The fact that it’s evolved into a true partnership is something that will benefit associates and clients of both organizations. Birenbaum says, “I have long admired Alex and his team, and over the years, that admiration has evolved into amazing professional collaboration and even friendship. Our organizations share the same commitment to doing the right things for clients at all times and have each worked hard to create a value-based culture where associates thrive and clients are well cared for. Helping more people is a very serious commitment and goal we both share.”
From Alex Potts’ perspective, it was a like-mindedness in their cultures, investment methodology and the way each organization cared for advisors that made the merger such a good fit. “We are thrilled to have found a partner who, like us, built a business model that is focused on putting others’ needs ahead of our own, one built on helping advisors deliver an exceptional experience to their clients,” he says.
The joining of forces between BAM Advisor Services and Loring Ward will address a central challenge for today’s financial advisor. “In today’s climate, adding value to end-clients’ lives requires offering far more than just investment management. It demands delivering a wide-ranging, holistic client experience, enabling clients to plan and solve for life’s most complex financial challenges,” says Birenbaum. By joining forces, advisor clients of BAM and Loring Ward will benefit from the depth of each business’ knowledge and experience, the ability to leverage that knowledge through their content and technology platforms, and the close-knit community of advisors who share best practices with each other every day.
Birenbaum noted the support and depth of resources Focus Financial Partners provided to lead the transaction process and drive it forward to fruition. “It would be impossible to imagine us making this happen were it not for our colleagues at Focus Financial Partners. From legal support to finance, capital, and transaction expertise, they worked in close coordination with Loring Ward and us to move this process forward and achieve this great outcome.”
“Our shared mission, experience and respective strengths mean when it comes to BAM and Loring Ward, one plus one can equal three. We cannot wait to see where this union takes us, our team and the advisors we serve,” says Birenbaum.
About BAM Advisor Services
For more than 20 years, BAM Advisor Services has served as a leading Turnkey Wealth Management Partner, dedicated to helping RIA-based wealth advisors deliver independent, holistic wealth management, investment, and planning solutions to individuals, families, and organizations. The organization is based in St. Louis, MO and is part of the Buckingham Family of Financial Services, which includes Buckingham Strategic Wealth, a Registered Independent Advisory firm with more than 25 locations across the United States. For more information, please visit www.bamadvisorservices.com.
About Loring Ward
Loring Ward (LWI Financial Inc.) is committed to creating a better wealth experience for Financial Advisors and their clients across the U.S. Since 1990, the firm has strived to do this by empowering Advisors with Investment and Advisor Solutions that can help increase the probability of delivering a great experience for their clients. It has a large network of independent Advisors in the United States and are located in San Jose, CA. Loring Ward’s Asset Class Investing philosophy is based on more than nine decades of data, analysis and research, insights from behavioral finance, and close relationships with leading academics, including Loring Ward Investment Committee Members Dr. Meir Statman and Nobel Laureate, Dr. Harry Markowitz. As of its most recent Form ADV, Loring Ward had $17.2 billion in regulatory assets under management. For more information, please visit www.loringward.com
About Focus Financial Partners Inc.
Focus Financial Partners is a leading partnership of independent, fiduciary wealth management firms. Focus provides access to best practices, resources, and continuity planning for its partner firms who serve individuals, families, employers and institutions with comprehensive wealth management services. Focus partner firms maintain their operational independence, while they benefit from the synergies, scale, economics and best practices offered by Focus to achieve their business objectives. For more information, please visit https://focusfinancialpartners.com/