One of the new firms he’s bought this year was a single-associate tax practice. “We have 35 locations and seven [or so] of those locations have dedicated tax professionals in them. I would like that to be over 20 by year-end and in every office by the end of 2020.”
Bicknell said he was recently in a custodian-sponsored meeting with other advisors and heard many of them were talking about shutting down their tax practices—which are often seen as humdrum, low-margin affairs. “I looked at them and said, ‘You’re all crazy. I’ll buy all of them,’” Bicknell said. “If you’re knee-deep in a tax return, you know more about that client than a stand-alone wealth advisor can know. So you can do a better job serving them, it’s a stickier relationship and it likely leads to incremental revenue.”
“We have our own tax practice with 75 tax professionals and we’ll do over 3,000 tax returns this year.”
After a brief respite from acquisitions a few years ago, Bicknell turned the focus of his firm to new acquisitions and a focus on wealth management. That has meant leaving the asset management realm behind. Mariner’s investment arm, Montage, began divesting itself of its many asset management companies over the last 18 months, a process begun with its sale of Tortoise Investments in 2017.
Mariner announced five other acquisitions this year: Patriot Wealth Management in Houston; Martin Financial Group in New Albany, Ind.; RTB Consulting LLC in Cincinnati; Foundations Wealth Management in Sioux Falls, S.D.; and Authent Advisors in Corte Madera, Calif.