The creator of the popular financial planning software Junxure has merged his financial advisory business with another firm to create one of the largest wealth management businesses in San Francisco's North Bay area.

Gregory H. Friedman, known as both a developer of the Junxure software and as the founder and CEO of his own financial advisory, Friedman & Associates in Novato, Calif., announced that his advisory business had merged with Salient Wealth Management in San Rafael. Friedman and Richard A. Stone, Salient's founder and CEO, said the merger was effective May 1.

The new firm, Salient-Friedman Wealth Management LLC, will have about $600 million in assets under management. It intends to serve a clientele of affluent Northern California investors with a minimum of $2 million to invest. Before the two joined, Friedman's firm had about $200 million in AUM and 130 clients, while Salient had about $350 million and 250 clients, Friedman said.

Stone, a 40-year veteran of the investment business, founded his firm in Marin County, Calif., in 1983. Friedman founded his advisory firm in 1991.

Junxure is the product of another firm Friedman founded, CRM Software, based in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. He and Ken Golding of Ken Golding Software launched the business in the late 1990s to find solutions to the financial planning problems that Friedman was facing in his advisory firm. Together they created Junxure, an award-winning office management software system now used by nearly 1,200 offices, those owned mainly by independent RIAs.

Even greater exposure came to the software in fall 2007, when Schwab Institutional adopted the software as its client relationship management (CRM) solution for its Portfolio Center suite of products.