United Capital Financial Advisors LLC, a financial aggregator that has experienced exceptional growth over the past decade, has acquired Peak Capital Investment Services, an advisory firm with $600 million in assets under management.
Peak has offices in Denver and Dallas and has grown from about $40 million in assets under management in 2002 to $600 million today. The acquisition brings United Capital's network to 34 private wealth counseling offices across the country and $16 billion in assets under management. Peak has about 40 employees and about $6 million in gross annual revenues.
United Capital, based in Newport Beach, Calif., will take over the human resources, benefits, compliance, bookkeeping and accounting for Peak, allowing the advisory firm to devote more resources to clients, said David Peterson, Peak president.
Peak includes a call center team that will be added to the United Capital network. The center reaches out to employees at large companies and invites them to seminars that attract eight to 250 attendees.
"We are confident that by working with United Capital's talented management team and the driven advisors within offices around the country, we can realize explosive growth nationally by leveraging what we have built here in our call center," Peterson said.
Peterson will join United Capital as a managing director along with Peak senior vice presidents Brandon Ross, Jonathan Blumenthal and Peak CIO Tim Harder.
Joe Duran, United Capital CEO, said the deal underscores his company's success in acquiring big RIA s from within the independent broker dealer industry. By the end of 2011, Duran expects his company will have added such four such teams, giving it 20 teams from independent broker dealers. United Capital has recruited from broker-dealers such as Commonwealth Financial Network, Royal Alliance and Wells Fargo's FiNet.