Dynasty Financial Partners announced the launch of Dynasty Investment Bank.
Going forward, the firm will leverage its M&A and capital strategies capabilities to offer buy-side and sell-side advice for independent wealth management firms inside and outside the Dynasty Network as well as for other types of firms that are in need of independent and objective strategic advice in the wealth and asset management industry.
“At Dynasty, we are facing substantial demand for M&A and investment banking services from advisors in our Network and outside our Network. Whether a CEO desires to acquire an RIA or tuck-in a group of advisors, want to explore selling their business, or are seeking a valuation to understand the value of their equity, RIA management teams seek high quality and objective advice. With our deep expertise and years of experience working with hundreds of leading advisors, we are well-positioned to offer RIAs a wide range of investment banking capabilities in this ever-complicated market” said Shirl Penney, CEO of Dynasty Financial Partners.
According to Harris Baltch, Head of Dynasty Investment Bank, “The independent wealth management industry has accelerated its pace of consolidation and maturation over the last decade. The headwinds of aging advisors, the valuation gap of succession and a higher interest rate combined with the influx of different capital providers and a multitude of business models will create a long runway for consolidation in the years to come. We believe this will create significant opportunity to provide independent, objective advice to CEOs, management teams and investors to execute M&A from start to finish.”
The Dynasty Investment Bank employs a team of seasoned investment bankers, former private equity professionals and other former Wall Street executives that have deep transaction experience advising founders, CEOs and other C-suite professionals on M&A, capital structure optimization and succession. The firm cumulatively has professional experience of more than 100 years and has advised on over $25 billion in transaction value across dozens of advisory mandates.
Over the last twelve months, Dynasty has advised on over 14 transactions including the recent announcement by DayMark Wealth Partner’s tuck-in of a $450 million team and Americana Partners’ tuck in of a $700 million team from major wirehouses in the United States.
Harold Williams and George Williams announced that they have partnered with Dynasty Financial Partners to launch a newly independent firm called Precedent Wealth Partners.
Based in San Antonio, Texas, Precedent Wealth Partners will also introduce a unique program that enables clients to share in the success of the firm through a fee-rebate program called ‘WillShare’. They plan to open a Houston office in August.
“We launched Precedent Wealth Partners largely because we want to partner with our clients by creating an advisory entity that cannot easily be sold. We want our clients to feel they can count on our permanence and alignment with them,” said Precedent Wealth Partners’ co-founder Harold Williams. “Our WillShare program aligns the clients’ interests with that of the owners, as we plan to share 33% of our distributable after-tax net income with our clients, via fee credits every year. We don’t know of any firms out there that are doing anything like this – it’s a new precedent being established in the wealth management marketplace. We’re proud of what we’re doing, and we’re excited to get going.”
The team previously managed over $1 billion in assets at Linscomb & Williams, a Houston-based wealth management firm named to Barrons Top 100 in the most recent release.
Mr. Williams added, “We look to expand our message and grow organically rather than focus on growth through acquisition. All too often, RIAs launch and then begin a “race to sell” within the next 5-10 years, whether to private equity, a bank, or other buyers. This may not work out so well for the clients. We want to be different: we want our clients to feel they are treated like fellow-owners. Our WillShare program will foster that feeling and lay the foundation for an enduring firm which they can count on to stay committed to its principles for many years to come.”
“We welcome Harold, George and the whole Precedent Wealth Partners team to the Dynasty Network and we look forward to working with them in building out their firm,” said Shirl Penney, CEO of Dynasty Financial Partners.
The name ‘Precedent’ speaks to the firm’s passion for setting a new precedent in the field of financial advice. Precedent Wealth Partners is in the unique position of benefitting clients with a share of their after-tax profits.
Precedent Wealth Partners works with clients in the areas of investment management, wealth planning, estate planning, tax strategy, insurance/risk management, and retirement planning.
Franklin Templeton announced the hiring of Damian Zamudio, as Vice President Offshore Sales Executive, to further develop and expand its offshore business with clients in New York City and the greater Northeast.
Based in New York, Zamudio reports to Marcus Vinicius Goncalves, CFA, Head of Americas Offshore Sales.
“Damian brings two decades of wealth and asset management experience to his new role, where he will be focused on providing an exceptional client experience,” said Goncalves. “We continue to be focused on offering clients a broad range of investment opportunities and differentiated capabilities, including alternatives, short duration fixed income and income solutions, to meet their needs in this market environment.”
Zamudio previously served as Regional Sales Manager International at abrdn Plc, where he spent more than 10 years supporting all aspects of the sales and business development life cycles across the Americas offshore markets. He was also a Vice President at BlackRock, where he was responsible for sales of a wide variety of sophisticated solutions and platforms tailored for the private bank and international clients. In addition, he was an Assistant Vice President at Merrill Lynch Wealth Management, where he consulted domestic and international financial advisors.
Zamudio holds a Bachelor of Arts from San Diego State University, with a major in International Business.
Banco Santander is to appoint Christiana Riley as regional head of North America.
Ms. Riley will join the bank on 1 October, subject to regulatory approval, and will be responsible for all the bank’s businesses in the US and Mexico, with the respective country heads, Tim Wennes and Felipe García Ascencio, reporting to her.
She will be a member of the group management team and report to the group’s CEO, Héctor Grisi, who was the regional head for North America until he was appointed to his current role on 1 January 2023.
Ms Riley joins Santander from Deutsche Bank, where she was a member of the management board having held several leadership roles over the past 17 years in both Europe and the Americas.
She was most recently regional CEO for Deutsche’s business across the Americas, based in New York, and before that she was chief financial officer and co-CEO of Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB). Prior to joining Deutsche, Ms. Riley worked at McKinsey & Company in Frankfurt and Greenhill & Co in New York and Frankfurt.
She is a graduate of Princeton University and the London Business School.
Santander executive chair, Ana Botín, said, “I am delighted that Christiana will be joining Santander to lead our team in North America. She has an outstanding background and a strong track record and I’m confident she will play an important role as we continue to support our customers and leverage the collective strength of the group across the region, building on the outstanding progress Tim and Felipe have already made.”
Santander serves 25 million customers across the US and Mexico, with c.45,000 employees and 1,900 branches. In 2022 the North America region generated 25% of group underlying profit with an adjusted return on tangible equity of 20.5%.
In this new global context: rising interest rates and inflationary pressures triggered mainly by the expansionary monetary policies applied by central banks during the pandemic, together with a new geopolitical reality, investors’ and portfolio managers’ appetite for fixed income has been reawakened. Relegated in recent years due to low-interest rates, this asset class is now a tool for protecting purchasing power in the face of inflation.
The recent bankruptcy of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) in March reverberated across markets, raising concerns about the impact on the financial sector in general and global monetary policy, reinforcing investment in fixed-income instruments as an exciting option for investors.
The US financial multinational Morgan Stanley is betting on bonds. It ranks them as the potential big winners of 2023. “This will be particularly true for high-quality bonds, which have historically performed well after the Federal Reserve (Fed) stops raising interest rates, even when a recession follows,” explained Andrew Sheets, chief strategist at Morgan Stanley Research.
For the first time since 2007, nearly 90% of the bond market yields above 4%. As BlackRock explains, the rate hike has brought the highest returns the US bond market has seen in over a decade.
The return offered by some fixed-income instruments in certain Latin American countries provides a unique opportunity to attract local or international investors through securitization tools and the creation of offshore investment vehicles or ETPs (Exchange-Traded Products), which allow increasing their distribution exponentially.
At FlexFunds, we can confirm that the creation of ETPs with this strategy has increased during the last year. Focusing mainly on Latin American investors, these instruments seek to offer:
1. Stability: Fixed-income investments are usually considered stable and low-risk compared to existing portfolio options. The fixed income is an instrument that offers a fixed interest rate paid periodically, which provides a constant and recurring source of income.
2. Income predictability: Since fixed-income investments offer interest at a predefined rate, it is feasible to project the amount and timing of the investor’s income. This is especially useful for those seeking steady sources of income to plan their budget.
3. Inflation protection: this is a key benefit of fixed-income bonds. Typically, these bonds come with an interest rate higher than the inflation rate, which means that the investor is protected against the erosion of the purchasing power of their money.
4. Diversification: This asset class can be a valuable tool for diversifying an investment portfolio and reducing downside risk. Since the return on a fixed income is not related directly to the performance of stock markets, it can be an effective way to have a balanced and diversified portfolio.
In the current environment, to take advantage of the opportunity that fixed income is bringing to the table, and after evaluating various alternatives in the market, many asset managers have found FlexFunds‘ FlexPortfolio an efficient solution for the management and distribution of fixed income strategies because it allows them:
1. Flexibility: FlexPortfolio is an instrument tailored to the manager’s needs. The manager can choose and trade the assets they wish to invest and adjust their allocation according to the proposed strategy’s conditions.
2. Accessibility: Managers can expand their access to investors globally. The FlexPortfolio can be purchased from existing brokerage accounts simply as it has an ISIN number, with settlement through Euroclear/Clearstream.
3. Lower costs: The cost of setting up a FlexPortfolio can be half that of other alternatives in the market. Managers benefit from economies of scale and structural and back-office cost savings.
4. Transparency: FlexPortfolios offer complete transparency to the investor compared to other investment vehicles, as the underlying assets and their returns are always visible.
5. Versatility: One of the main advantages of the FlexPortfolio is that it allows a tailor-made combination of assets to be designed and executed in a single investment. A FlexPortfolio can include various assets: stocks, bonds, commodities, and currencies.
6. Liquidity: FlexPortfolios offer high liquidity because investors can subscribe and redeem their holdings in the portfolio more quickly, compared to buying and selling the underlying assets individually. The liquidity of this investment vehicle is directly proportional to the liquidity of its underlying assets.
In conclusion, in the current economic environment, fixed income can provide stability and security to investors due to its ability to offer fixed and relatively predictable income. However, as with any investment, it is essential to evaluate it carefully and have the right advice to weigh its pros and cons before making an investment decision. When establishing an investment vehicle that allows you to design and distribute a fixed-income strategy, FlexFunds‘ FlexPortfolio may be an alternative.
Pablo Gegalian serves as Regional Director of Southern Cone for FlexFunds .
U.S. stocks were mostly higher to finish March despite a banking crisis that caused the second & third-largest bank failures in U.S. history. The market’s mood and outlook shifted as investors’ expectations about the Fed’s policy path drove a significant rotation into growth names, with big tech, semis and software among the notable beneficiaries.
The month started with thoughts of a higher terminal rate in response to stronger-than-expected economic data, supported by comments from Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s congressional testimony about accelerating the pace of rate hikes if necessary. However, investors quickly focused their attention on bank deposit stress and losses on held-to-maturity (HTM) assets, as an accelerating bank run brought about the rapid regulatory shutdown of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank (SBNY). Both banks had an unusually high ratio of uninsured deposits that spooked customers into seeking insurance.
On March 22, the Federal Reserve announced another 25bps rate hike at the end of its two-day policy meeting, bringing the targeted federal funds rate to 4.75-5.00%. During his press conference, Fed Chair Jerome Powell noted that the central bank may be nearing the end of its rate-hiking cycle but he qualified that the inflation fight is not over. Most investors still expect at least one more rate hike this year. The next FOMC meeting is May 2-3.
Growth stocks have substantially outperformed value stocks to start 2023. We believe this creates an opportunity for Value Investors. The market is pricing a cut in interest rates sooner than Powell’s comments imply. The current environment of rising interest rates will continue to put a premium on near term cash flows, which should benefit our portfolio of companies.
As value oriented stock pickers, we believe now is our time to shine. We continue to seek franchise businesses with barriers to entry, pricing power, recurring revenue and large free cash flow generation that are trading below Private Market Value. The environment is still ripe for value surfacing catalysts: while M&A activity was down in 2022, it is still robust compared to most historical years. Companies have many opportunities to pursue financial engineering, not limited to M&A. We believe our portfolio of holdings is well positioned to thrive in this environment and their value will be recognized by the market in due time.
Global M&A volume totalled $580 billion in the first quarter, a 23% sequential decline from the fourth quarter of 2022 and a decrease of 44% compared to the first quarter of 2022. Healthcarewas the most active sector for M&A, totalling $97 billion of dealmaking, an increase of 60% compared to 2022, and it accounted for 17% of all deals. Technology and Industrials were the next most active sectors, accounting for 17% and 13%, respectively.
Private Equity activity remained robust, accounting for more than 25% of deal volume in the first quarter. Despite the global slowdown in deals, public company M&A in the U.S. remained stable sequentially. Notable deals that closed in March include: Atlas Air Worldwide (AAWW-NASDAQ) which was acquired by Apollo Global for $5 billion, Coupa Software (COUP-NASDAQ) which was acquired by Thoma Bravo for $6 billion, Vivint Smart Home (VVNT-NYSE) which was acquired by NRG Energy for $5 billion, Altra Industrial Motion Corp. (AIMC-NASDAQ) which was acquired by Regal Rexnord for $5 billion, and Duck Creek Technologies (DCT-NASDAQ) which was acquired by Vista Equity Partners for $2.5 billion, among others.
Despite the noted volatility this month, the convertible market finished slightly higher with strong performance following the CS acquisition. Convertible performance is more a function of underlying equity movements than interest rates, but both factors had a positive contribution over the last few weeks. Issuance has continued to trickle in and we have added some recent new issues to the portfolio. Generally, these have helped increase current yield while diversifying the portfolio with balanced convertibles.
We continue to remain optimistic for the possibilities of convertibles as an asset class this year, as they allow investors to position their portfolio cautiously while allowing them to participate when the market moves higher. There are many convertibles with a yield to maturity in excess of the long-term expected return of the convertible market despite solid and improving fundamentals. As we have noted previously, we have managed convertibles through multiple market downturns and have seen how they can be a great tool for companies to raise capital despite uncertainty while offering investors a risk-adjusted way to participate in a recovery.
Opinion article by Michael Gabelli, Managing Director at Gabelli & Partners.
The Fi Impact Investing Forum, Europe’s largest meeting on impact investing, is holding its fifth edition entitled ‘The Power of Capital for a Better Future’, the aim of which is to highlight the transformative power of capital and analyze new trends in impact investing.
Organized by Social Nest Foundation, the global platform for social and environmental impact investors and entrepreneurs, the forum will act as a meeting point where investors, owners and asset managers can discover the challenges in the sector, as well as new investment opportunities, with a focus on attracting new international investors interested in southern Europe and Latin America in particular.
To be held on May 10 at the Colegio Oficial de Arquitectos de Madrid between 8:30 am and 7:00 pm, the event will cover issues such as: the path from sustainable investment to impact investment, gender-sensitive investing, opportunities in emerging markets such as Africa and Latin America, impact investment as a catalyst for systemic change and the importance of capital for driving social and environmental change.
The conference will be attended by leading international experts in financial management and social and environmental impact investment, including: Tim Radjy, Chairman of Alphamundi; Ging Ledesma, director of strategy and sustainable impact at Oikocredit International; Nico Blaauw, partner at Goodwell; Carolina Suárez, CEO of Latimpacto; Roberta Bosurgi, CEO of EVPA; Bertrand Badré, Managing Partner and founder of Blue Like An Orange; Tammy Newmark, CEO of EcoEnterprises Fund; Virgilio Barco, Managing Director of Alive Ventures; Tom Keheler, Equity Director of Oikocredit; Pablo Valencia, Partner at Q Impact; Tom Adams, co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of 60 Decibels; Agi Veres, Director of the UNDP office, Geneva; Jingdong Hua, Vice Chair of ISSB and former Vice President of the World Bank, and Margarita Albors, Founder and President of Social Nest Foundation.
In addition to the presentations and panels on the two main stages, the event will feature other attractive content and formats such as theme-based workshops, networking sessions, a demo stage and matchmaking spaces for funds and impact firms and for asset owners and managers.
The Fi Impact Investing Forum is partnering with: Oikocredit, Goodwell, Alphamundi, Invest in Madrid, Zubi Capital, Global Social Impact Investments and Q Impact.
Photo courtesyFrom left yo right: Steve Preskenis, Bolton’s President y Marco Bizzozero, Head of International at iCapital
Bolton Global Capital, a leading independent wealth management firm, and iCapital, the global fintech platform driving access to alternative investments for the wealth management industry, today announced a partnership to provide Bolton’s extensive network of financial advisors with a range of private market offerings and resources.
Bolton will launch a customized marketplace powered by iCapital’s technology and solutions to deliver private equity, private debt, and real estate investment offerings to advisors across Latin America as well as US advisers servicing US resident and non-resident LATAM clients.
Unicorn Strategic Partners, a leading distribution partner to asset managers and a strategic partner to iCapital in the LATAM region, will support Bolton in their distribution efforts and will educate Bolton’s network of advisors on the asset class and funds available on Bolton’s marketplace.
“Financial advisors are increasingly looking for a broader array of investment options to meet clients’ growing appetite for private market offerings,” said Steve Preskenis, Bolton’s President. “Our partnership with iCapital provides advisors with streamlined access to a selective range of alternative investment solutions, while empowering them with the resources to make informed decisions about how this asset class can potentially benefit client portfolios.”
Bolton’s digital marketplace will automate the subscription process to improve the efficiency and client experience of alternative investing.
“There is increasing unmet demand from wealth managers and their clients in the region for private markets as value creation is increasingly taking place outside public markets while companies are still private,” saidMarco Bizzozero, Head of International at iCapital. “We are delighted to further strengthen our presence domestically and in Latin America and to support the Bolton team in our shared mission to provide institutional-quality investment offerings to the US and LATAM wealth management communities.”
In addition, iCapital will offer research, due diligence, education, and investment product training to Bolton’s advisor network of more than 50 affiliated offices.
“A lack of education has prevented many advisors from using more alternative investments,” said Wes Sturdevant, Head of Client Solutions LATAM. “This partnership is emblematic of iCapital’s key value proposition because it helps advisors and their clients understand private market investments through education to produce successful outcomes.”
Bolton Global Capital announced the hiring of Enrique Ortega as financial advisor.
Mr. Ortega has more than 15 years of experience in portfolio management and investment analysis serving international clients.
Prior to joining Bolton Global, Mr. Ortega worked as a Senior Wealth Advisor at Citi Global Wealth Management, where he maintained a book of over $200 million in assets under management for clients from across Latin America.
Before joining Citi in 2013, he worked for Bank Leumi, EFG Capital International Corp and Banco Pichincha.
“Having known Enrique for many years, I’ve always admired his professionalism and commitment to his clients. Bolton Global Capital is thrilled to have Enrique join our team. His proven success and experience will be a valuable asset for the future growth of our organization” said Michael Averett, Bolton’s Head of Business Development.
In addition to a Master of Business Administration from the University of Miami, Mr. Ortega holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Finance from Florida International University.
Mr. Ortega will be based out of Bolton’s Miami office at the Four Seasons Tower in Brickell Avenue.
The Federal Reserve Board announced its approval for UBS Group AG, of Zürich, Switzerland, to acquire the U.S. subsidiaries of Credit Suisse Group AG, of Zürich, Switzerland.
The application was submitted in connection with UBS GroupAG’s acquisition of Credit Suisse Group AG.
In connection with the proposal, UBS has committed to provide the Board with an implementation plan for combining the U.S. business and operations of UBS and Credit Suisse, which will be updated quarterly.
The implementation plan will address UBS’s obligations to comply with more stringent enhanced prudential standards, including liquidity standards.
Pressure from the Swiss government, which went so far as to contemplate the nationalization of Credit Suisse, brought about an agreement as swift as it was historic in Swiss international banking: UBS agreed to buy Credit Suisse for $3.23 billion on Sunday, March 19.
