The Bahnsen Group has an office on both the East and West coasts, and now it has an office in the middle of the country with today’s announcement that it has brought on board Minneapolis-based Story Capital LLC.
The Bahnsen Group, a $3 billion wealth management firm founded by managing partner David Bahnsen, has hired the team at Story Capital rather than buy it outright.
“We’ve hired them exclusively, and have the first right of refusal to purchase their legacy business,” Bahnsen said. “This is a hiring, and an assimilation into our business, but we won’t transact on the value of their legacy business until a future date to give them time to grow. And both parties are making sure the marriage is meant to be.”
For its part, the people at Story Capital are free to walk away from this arrangement just like hired employees at any company can do.
Meanwhile, Story Capital’s five-member practice is now branded under The Bahnsen Group’s nameplate. Its forte is serving C-suite and other senior corporate executives in the Twin Cities area. The firm was founded by Phillip Barnhill, whose job title had been advisor and equity compensation strategist. His new title with The Bahnsen Group is senior wealth advisor and director of risk management.
His wife Michele, who was director of operations and client experience at Story Capital, is now listed as office manager in the Minneapolis branch. Their son, Stoddard, who was listed as an advisor and planning director at Story Capital, is a lead advisor in The Bahnsen Group's private wealth advisor group.
The other staff members making the transition to The Bahnsen Group are Sarah Leitzke, joining the services and planning department, and Reid Gustafson in the operations department.
David Bahnsen said he fully expects his firm to eventually purchase the business of the former Story Capital.
“If we would put a multiple on cash flows, I think they’ll be more valuable internally in two years than they are now,” he explained. “We wanted to just focus on the transition, integration and getting the senior members of their team—the mom and dad, who are the founders—really comfortable with how we do business. Because they want to walk away in a couple of years and hand it off to their adult son, Stoddard, who is the heir apparent, they would do so inside the more developed infrastructure of The Bahnsen Group. That’s their strategic plan.
“But rather than effect a capital transaction to make it all permanent and official now, we’re purposefully waiting to make sure it all sticks,” he added.