Dallas-based Fiduciary Network has acquired a minority stake in Morton Capital Management of Calabassos, Calif. The transaction is designed to enable the firm’s founder and CEO, Lon Morton, to transition the business and help finance the firm’s other partners as they increase their interest in the business over the next few years.
 
Morton Capital is a leading RIA with $1.2 billion in assets under management in the Oxnard/Ventura area. Morton started the firm in 1981. In recent years, it has experienced serious growth. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
 
The firm has two co-presidents, Meghan Pinchuk and Jeffrey Sarti. Both are under 40 years old and are CFA charterholders.
 
Sarti served as chief investment officer of the firm from 2004 to 2007 before leaving to join a hedge fund. He returned in 2011.  Pinchuk joined the firm in 2006 after graduating summa cum laude from UCLA.
 
For Fiduciary Network, the transaction represents its 15th investment since the firm was founded in 2007 by New York investor Howard Milstein and former Undiscovered Managers CEO Mark Hurley. The firm was established to make minority investments in RIA firms as well as structure loans to enable younger partners to acquire founders’ equity interests. The 15 firms within the network have about $16 billion in assets combined.