Raleigh, N.C.-based CAPTRUST, a prominent institutional consulting firm, announced Tuesday that it is acquiring CapTrust Advisors of Tampa, Fla.
Both firms are separate entities, despite the shared name. They primarily consult to retirement plans, and were originally part of the independent CapTrust unit started by the Interstate Johnson Lane brokerage firm. CapTrust was disbanded when Wachovia bought ILJ in 1999, and its advisors dispersed, many forming their own advisory firms.
As a result, both CAPTRUST and CapTrust Advisors have known each other for almost two decades. “We understand [CapTrust Advisors] and its culture intimately,” said Fielding Miller, CAPTRUST chief executive, in a statement.
Managing principals Roger Robson, Stephen Schott and Eric Bailey are the primary owners of CapTrust Advisors.
CAPTRUST consults on a non-discretionary basis on about $220 billion, most of it for retirement plan sponsors and other institutions. The institutional business is done on a retainer-fee basis, Miller said in an interview. CapTrust Advisors follows a similar business model, consulting on about $19 billion of institutional assets.
CapTrust Advisors will take on the CAPTRUST name. The combined firms will have 34 offices nationwide, with 138 advisors. Terms were not disclosed.
The deal is the 26th CAPTRUST has done over its history, and it is the sixth merger the firm has completed this year.
“We’re definitely building a national presence,” Miller told Financial Advisor magazine. “And there’s a lot more we want to do.”
Scale is one benefit of expansion. “The [combined] assets we have, at $240 billion, that gives us a lot of clout with asset managers and vendors, so when we pick up phone, we get access to the portfolio managers,” he said.
Size also allows CAPTRUST to fill its ranks with managers who are specialists in their roles. “That gives you a lot of momentum in the business,” Miller said.