Two Ohio financial advisory giants are joining forces to create a $10 billion powerhouse in the Buckeye State.
Akron-based registered investment advisor Sequoia Financial Group has agreed to acquire Mayfield Heights-based NCA Financial Planners in a deal set to close by the last day of the year. Sequoia, which began acquiring firms in 2009, currently has $8 billion in assets under management.
NCA, which had grown organically up to now, had $1.7 billion in assets in September, the companies said in the press release announcing the deal.
The acquisition follows Sequoia’s purchase of Columbus, Ohio-based Wealthstone Advisors, a deal announced in April. Wealthstone had $1.4 billion in assets.
When Sequoia and NCA merge, the new entity will have145 employees, including the 27 currently working for NCA. Kevin Myeroff, the CEO of NCA, will become the firm’s senior strategic advisor.
Myeroff said he had known Sequoia and its CEO, Thomas Haught, for 20 years and they were friendly competitors. “When we started our business, we really wanted to be one of the firms on the tip of the spear,” Myeroff said. “Not just good, but the best. And I said, ‘Jeez. We’ve got to get to a billion dollars to have the scale to deliver to our clients what we need to deliver. And then it became $2 billion, which is really hard to do when you’re only [growing] organically like us. Now it’s $10 billion. … And I don’t want to wait 10 years to get there.”
Myeroff said NCA does holistic financial planning for “millionaire next door” Midwestern type clients, who started modestly, bought houses and saved. The firm is a Finra member affiliated with broker-dealer Royal Alliance.
Haught said his firm has focused on entrepreneurs. “Our early roots were with privately held businesses that had planning issues that related to not only their liquid assets but also their illiquid assets … the value of their equity and their real estate that was tied in the business. We learned a lot about estate planning and long-range planning based on those assets not being short-dated assets but being long-dated assets.”
Haught says clients want a broader solution set. “Planning is broader and broader each year. When Kevin and I started many years ago it was predominantly investment work, and it’s become financial planning and estate planning, college planning and helping people decide whether they should buy or lease a car and helping people to think about states of residency and tax planning.” He says the merger gives the company more scale to reinvest in the business and offer more services.
Myeroff said smaller firms are limited in what they can do—that they can only hire so many people, who end up doing work they don’t have time for.