Crown Wealth Group is a young firm with ambitious growth plans, and the Charlotte, N.C.-based company expanded its business with its recent merger with The Greater Piedmont Group of Winston-Salem, N.C.
Crown Wealth launched in April 2018 under under a corporate registered investment advisor, and went the independent RIA route in January 2019. Founded by millennial brothers Nick and Tyler Kolbenschlag, the firm is built on what it says is a personal CFO model designed to enable financial advisors to bring family office-style solutions to their clients.
The company completed its first merger in late 2019 when it aligned with Client First Advisors and Doug Coppola of Chapel Hill, N.C. Structured in what is described as a delayed acquisition, this transaction enables Coppola, who is in his late-60s, a chance to remain in the business during a five-year period while providing him with an exit strategy and enabling Crown Wealth to bring his clients into the fold.
The Greater Piedmont Group comes to Crown Wealth with a longer-term outlook. The firm was founded in 2009 by Zac O'Brien and includes partner Jakin Fox and Amy Olsen. Its client base consists of high-net-worth business owners, doctors, executives and generational wealth families. The trio came to Crown Wealth from Thrivent Financial.
“They are here to expand upon our personal CFO offering by being able to reach more high-net-worth families than we could on our own, and we expect them to be here with us the next 30-plus years,” says Tyler Kolbenschlag, managing partner at Crown Wealth.
The Greater Piedmont Group remains in Winston-Salem and operates under the Crown Wealth brand. O’Brien and Fox are now managing directors of Crown Wealth’s North region.
Crown Wealth has seven employees that include the Kolbenschlag brothers and the firm’s chief investment officer and partner, Steve Lindgren, along with the four individuals who came on board via external deals. It serves roughly 145 clients with $75 million in assets.
The company says it remains in expansion mode. “We are in conversations with other firms at this time and will continue to have those conversations, but we have become very selective in who we bring under the Crown brand,” says managing partner Nick Kolbenschlag.