Dakota Wealth Management, Peter Raimondi’s new RIA acquisition vehicle, acquired Boston-based tax and advisory practice GML Associates on Wednesday. The transaction marks Dakota’s third acquisition since the firm was launched eight months ago.
GML was founded by Gary Locarno, who launched the firm in 1992 after working for years at Deloitte with high-net-worth clients. Katelyn Ainsworth, an attorney and CPA, will join Locarno in moving over to Dakota.
When he founded The Colony Group in the mid-1980s, Raimondi, an attorney himself, offered clients tax preparation services virtually from the start. After selling his stake in The Colony Group of Boston in 2006, Raimondi launched Banyan Partners, which operated primarily as a wealth management firm.
He acknowledges that not offering this service at Banyan, which was acquired by Boston Private in 2014 for $60 million, was noticed by some longtime clients. Consequently, shortly after launching Dakota he started to look at tax planning entities.
GML serves between 75 and 100 high-net-worth clients, many with substantial real estate and private business holdings. Locarno and his team also oversee several hundred million dollars in client assets, which is managed at third-party custodians.
Dakota’s client portfolios frequently feature an option overlay strategy, which Raimondi says reduced drawdowns by about one-third in last year’s turbulent fourth quarter. GML clients don’t have access to these strategies, which can also generate income.
Though GML clients may choose to remain with their existing money managers, Raimondi believes Dakota stands a good chance of winning them over. “As Gary learned about it [Dakota's asset management strategy], he became interested because it was something his clients lacked,” he said.