Brinker says United Capital is pivoting out of the acquisition business as recruitment and practice development have become its primary engines for growth.

“As it stands, most of the regional $1 billion-plus RIAs are interested in acquisitions as a strategy,” Brinker says. “I think they all can be very good at it, but the space has already been noisy from all of the would-be buyers. You can’t go to a merger and acquisitions conference where everyone’s a buyer.”

In 2014, United Capital formed a recruitment team to identify low-asset advisors who fit in with the hybrid firm’s culture, recruit them as contractors paid through a 1099 form, fully train them and then add them as full employees as their revenues cross $1 million annually.

As the RIA channel becomes more competitive, Brinker says United Capital will also attempt to add teams from other large firms and from wirehouses via recruitment.

“So far, very few of our anchor offices are staffed with individuals coming from the wirehouse channel,” Brinker says. “I don’t want to generalize too much, but a lot of these advisors want to make all of the decisions from portfolio accounting software to the brand to the website design, they want to flex out their muscles in the independent space. I applaud them for that, but they don’t know the burden that comes with that level of independence.”

Brinker says United Capital will continue its aggressive growth, aiming to double revenue over the next two years, and to have $25-$30 billion in assets and $250 million in annual revenue over the next three to five years.

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