San Diego-based RIA Brown Wealth Management will acquire Truuwater Financial, another RIA based in the same city, according to an announcement this morning.
Both Brown and Truuwater are partner firms and investment-advisor representatives of Beechwood, Ohio-based RIA Stratos Wealth Partners, which helped to facilitate the deal. The acquisition brings Brown Wealth Management’s AUM from $825 million to $1.2 billion.
As part of the deal, Robert Meyer, Truuwater’s CEO and chief investment officer, will continue to serve as a partner, senior advisor and member of the combined firm’s investment committee. Meyer is joined by four other professionals from Truuwater’s team, expanding Brown’s team to 14 advisors and support professionals.
Brown serves a clientele primarily made up of engineers, scientists and crop executives, according to Jeff Brown, it’s president, providing services at the intersection of traditional investment management, financial planning and life coaching.
“Historically, these are do-it-yourself investors that are detail-oriented, fee-conscious and performance-focused,” said Brown. “They often meet their monetary goals but fall short of their life goals. The pandemic has moved the needle as people reflect on what’s most important in life and the best way to solve this. Truuwater was a perfect fit based on belief system, they’re helping people live richly and make the most of today without running out of money.”
Brown Wealth Management is looking to actively grow via acquisitions, said Brown, who added that the Truuwater purchase gives his firm much needed operational support and additional capacity for organic growth. The firm has a goal to reach $4 billion AUM by 2025.
Stratos, which also provided an undisclosed amount of funding for the acquisition, now has more than $16 billion in AUM, according to company President Lou Camacho.
“Being able to more deeply partner with folks like Jeff and the team at Brown Wealth Management is a natural evolution for us,” said Camacho. “As advisors look to scale their own businesses, it makes all the more sense for us to make those investments—so when Jeff and his team turn around and acquire firms like Truuwater, it is fantastic.”
Stratos made a strategic investment in Brown Wealth Management last May to help catalyze its future growth.
The acquisition firms Stratos’s footprint in southern California as it searches for more partner firms, said Camacho, who added that Stratos operates as a network of 300 affiliated advisors, each of whom acts as their own independent business.
“We think that our infrastructure can help facilitate and accelerate their growth moving forward,” said Camacho. “All of the opportunities we come across in the marketplace don’t make sense for acquisitions at the enterprise level, but they might make sense to a firm like Brown Wealth Management. It’s incredibly important for us to not only see our partners succeed and grow their firms, but for us to be a part of that and facilitate that in any way possible.”
Brown added that clients of both firms should expect a smooth transition.
“One thing we didn’t want to do is rock the boat,” he said. “Truuwater’s investment style and strategy is very similar to ours and we can keep that as part of our overall platform. Truuwater’s client will gain more detail-oriented, intention-based financial planning with a broader scope of people available to help them out. Clients of both firms will gain a more enduring combined fir. We already have next-gen advisors, we now have evolved into an enduring firm that can outlive Robert and myself for generations to come.”
Brown Wealth Management custodies with LPL Financial, Fidelity and Schwab.
Additional details of the transaction were not disclosed
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