Carson Wealth Management has acquired a 25 percent stake in Ruggie Wealth Management, a Central Florida practice with $566 million in client assets under management (AUM), through an equity swap option, according to a news release.
Tom Ruggie, who leads the firm, will maintain majority ownership in it. He will also continue to make all strategic business and operational decisions for the practice and its offices. The affiliation will give Ruggie access to Carson’s deep bench of services, including its new client experience technology, Carson CX.
Further details of the transaction were not available.
The addition of Ruggie’s three offices brings the total number of Carson offices around the country to 18, while strengthening its presence in the Southeast U.S.
Ruggie is Carson Wealth's fifth advisory acquisition in the past year with over $500 million in AUM. Not only is Carson growing, so, too, is Ruggie.
“We’ve set a goal to grow by a factor of 10 in the next 10 years,” Ruggie said in the news release.
Ruggie said he plans to work closely with Carson to identify acquisition opportunities to expand his advisor team through the “Join a Firm” program.
According to the Ruggie website, the firm’s headquarters is located in Tavares, Fla., but it recently opened an office in Pinellas Plaza in the Villages, the nation's fastest-growing retirement community.
“Although we had served residents of the Villages for more than 20 years from our office in Tavares, we understood how important our responsibility was coming into this prime location for financial advisors who counsel retirees,” Ruggie said in an e-mail.
While this is Ruggie’s first office inside the Villages, it is not the first Carson affiliate office there, Ruggie said.