Focus Financial to Merge RIAs Buckingham, Colony Group

What You Need to Know

The two flagship advisory firms in Focus Financial’s partner network are in advanced talks to become one entity.
Buckingham’s chairman and CEO, Adam Birenbaum, will be the combined company’s CEO.
Colony CEO Michael Nathanson will serve solely as head of Focus Financial.

Focus Financial Partners says two of its flagship advisory firm partners — Buckingham Strategic Wealth and The Colony Group — are in advanced discussions to merge in order to unify their resources and talent and further expand their respective capabilities.

Buckingham’s chairman and CEO, Adam Birenbaum, will be the combined company’s CEO, according to the announcement. Colony Group CEO Michael Nathanson, who on April 30 was named CEO of Focus, will shift to serving solely as CEO of Focus.

Together, the combined firm will represent nearly 1,200 employees across more than 90 office locations supporting tens of thousands of clients with a total of $102.4 billion of assets.

Industry blogger and speaker Michael Kitces has been head of planning strategy with Buckingham since March 2020. Jeff Levine, who writes regularly about tax issues on social media, has been the firm’s chief planning officer since January 2021, after joining the RIA a year earlier.

Buckingham’s sister company, the turnkey asset management platform provider Buckingham Strategic Partners, will continue to operate post-merger under Birenbaum’s leadership. Jonathan Scheid will remain its president.

As of March, St. Louis-based Buckingham Strategic Wealth managed about $30.1 billion in assets. Buckingham Strategic Partners has close to $40 billion of assets on its platform.

The Colony Group, which has its headquarters in Boston, reported total assets of $32.3 billion as of March 31.

‘Dream Come True’

“This transaction will create an RIA of truly substantial scale and marks a milestone moment in the history of our industry,” Nathanson said. “The combined firm’s scale underscores and accelerates the ongoing evolution we are seeing in [wealth management] to cultivate better opportunities for clients and advisors and to offer them outstanding capabilities and services.”