Integrity Marketing Group LLC, a Dallas-based company that develops, distributes and markets life and health insurance products nationwide in partnership with insurance carriers, has entered into an agreement to acquire Gladstone Wealth Partners, an LPL-affiliated RIA in Boca Raton, Fla., with over $13 billion in assets under management (AUM), the companies announced.
"Successful financial planning should holistically include life, health and wealth solutions to help clients pursue their lifelong financial goals," Bryan W. Adams, co-founder and CEO of Integrity, said in a prepared statement. "The addition of Gladstone Wealth Partners to the Integrity family means that we can serve the life, health and wealth needs of Americans better than ever before as we help them plan for the good days ahead."
Under the terms of the deal, Robert Hudson, founder and chairman of Gladstone, and Richard Frick, CEO of Gladstone, will become managing partners in Integrity.
In a prepared statement, Hudson said that through the partnership, he and his team would be able to deliver enhanced technology and a full suite of products and services to Gladstone advisors.
“Just like Integrity, we understand that advisors need specialized support as independent advocates for their clients—and we’re dedicated to ensuring their success,” he said.
Hudson founded Gladstone in 2012 to fill critical gaps in service and support he said he had encountered as an independent financial advisor. The company has since transitioned from a hybrid wealth-management platform offering an open architecture, multicustodial RIA access, to a full-service broker-dealer offering.
Over the past three years, Gladstone said that its advisors achieved a 108% compound annual growth rate (CAGR).
"At Gladstone, we empower advisors to grow from a practice into a firm, and ultimately, to be part of an enterprise that brings the full resources of Wall Street to Main Street," Frick said in a statement.
Frick said in an email that Gladstone advisors and their clients will have access to more services and offerings through Integrity’s shared service model.
“This will fast forward Gladstone 10 years ahead,” he said in the email. “If we took on a PE (private equity) investor, we would have had to build out all the services, and offerings, and scale that Integrity allows us to have today. We would have never gotten there alone. This is a win for our advisors, clients and for both firms.”