Naviter Wealth of Little Rock, Ark., has repurchased a minority stake in itself held by Wealth Advisor Network (WAGN), according to a press release.
Naviter said it repurchased the stake within five years of being launched with the support of Wealth Advisor in early 2021.
The repurchase provides Naviter’s management with a greater stake in a company that “has achieved substantial growth, including through the acquisition of Echelon Wealth Advisors in 2023, and manages more than $1 billion today,” the release stated.
The RIA said it has more than doubled its team to meet the needs of its expanding client base since its startup.
Naviter, founded by CEO Bentley Blackmon and President Phillip Worthen to be an independent firm and a fiduciary, offers estate planning, tax and accounting, corporate finance and other services to families who have experienced a significant liquidity event.
“The WAGN team was critical to us in the early stages of our launch,” Blackmon said in a prepared statement. “As a strategic and capital partner, [Wealth Advisor] helped us quickly identify and implement the compliance, legal, marketing, technical, and back-office support we needed for a successful start.”
John Phoenix, a partner at Wealth Advisor, said his wealth management consultancy was founded to help RIAs grow free from the limitations of the broker-dealer world and institutional bias.
“WAGN was created to help teams like Naviter achieve total independence,” he said in the release. “We have seen firms struggle to buy back ownership from their initial investors; by agreeing to sell our minority position to the team at Naviter, we set ourselves apart from other institutional investors in the space.”
Naviter and Wealth Advisor have other business interests together, according to the release, and will continue to look for opportunities to work together in the wealth management business.