Overland Park, Kan.-based RIA Mariner Wealth Advisors has added its fourth new firm this year with the purchase of Corbenic Partners, a Bethlehem, Pa.-based firm with $1 billion in assets.
Corbenic was founded by Brad Griswold in 1994, according to its website. According to a press release announcing the deal, the firm has eight team members and has experience serving franchisee owners. Corbenic will take Mariner’s name as of the deal’s close in June 30.
It is Mariner’s 74th location.
Marty Bicknell, the CEO and president of Mariner, said in email to Financial Advisor that his firm has made 19 acquisitions in the last 12 months and that the acquisition schedule has accelerated over 2020, when the firm made only two.
“Clients are looking for an advisor that understands their needs and goals, and for many, it isn’t a requirement that they live in the same area. We don’t focus on geography, but we do focus on talent,” he said.
Mariner was founded in 2006 and has spread across the country to include offices in New York City, Chicago, Miami, San Francisco, Oklahoma City and St. Louis. Bicknell, a voracious acquirer, built his firm over much of the last decade by purchasing firms out of company cash flow and his own pocket. Last year, the firm said it had taken on a minority stake from a private equity firm, Leonard Green & Partners in Los Angeles, to help with its further expansion. One of its deals last year included the merger with AdvicePeriod, a $5.1 billion AUM firm founded in 2014 by industry veteran and serial entrepreneur Steve Lockshin.
Mariner started with $300 million in assets under advisement. The firm and its affiliates now advise on more than $60 billion.