Signature Estate & Investment Advisors (SEIA) wants to be a $50 billion registered investment advisor within the next five years and is banking that a recent equity investment from Reverence Capital Partners will help them get there.
Los Angeles-based SEIA has been an advisor-driven business for the past 25 years, quickly amassing more than $16 billion in assets under management. However, the company wants to double those assets by 2027. To reach that level, the firm sought out partners it could work with to bring more services and investment products to its client base.
“I felt that to compete effectively and to benefit our clients, we needed to [seek out an equity partner],” SEIA President and CEO Brian Holmes said.
He believes that focusing his firm’s resources on high-net-worth clients is the key to additional growth. On Wednesday, the firm announced that New York-based Reverence would be making an undisclosed investment and acquiring a majority stake in SEIA. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter.
Milton Berlinski, managing partner and founder at Reverence, said his firm will provide expertise and strategic guidance at the board level, capital for growth, transactional experience to help SEIA execute a successful M& A strategy, and additional resources to help create additional best practices procedures.
“We have been attracted to the RIA industry for quite some time,” he said. “SEIA has been one of the fastest growing RIAs in the space.”
He added that Reverence was particularly attracted to SEIA because of its strong growth.
Despite Reverence obtaining a majority stake in SEIA, Holmes will continue to run the company and advisors will maintain ownership of their products. Reverence will, however, work closely with SEIA management so it can share its expertise in the short term, Berlinski said.
“We will help them to do the things that they haven’t yet done,” Berlinski said. “We will provide strategic advice at the board level, help institutionalize certain core functionalities and assist in building out their M& A and integration team so they can do it all in-house over time.”