America’s Best TAMP darling AssetMark (ticker AMK) closed its deal to buy Adhesion Wealth last week as scheduled for $46 million plus transaction costs. That landed AssetMark a tidy $7.3 billion in additional AUM.
The combination cements AssetMark at $100 billion of assets on its platform giving it the #2 TAMP in America, according to the Wealth Advisor’s research for America’s Best TAMPs. The combined advisor head count is now over 12,100, with 9,600 from AssetMark and 2,800 from Adhesion.
“AssetMark and Adhesion are officially united in pursuit of our shared mission to empower growth-focused advisors to deliver better investor outcomes while successfully growing their practices,” said Natalie Wolfsen, CEO of AssetMark. “Our combined suite of purpose-built solutions allows us to serve advisors across a wider spectrum of practice profiles and growth enablement preferences, and ultimately make a difference in the lives of more advisors and their clients.”
Adhesion is the industry’s second-largest model marketplace with over 400 asset managers. The platform provides its clients with outsourced overlay portfolio management services, client engagement technologies, and tailored managed account solutions for TAMPs and RIA enterprises.
“We are incredibly excited to be a part of AssetMark,” said Barrett Ayers, CEO of Adhesion. “Adhesion’s employees and clients will benefit greatly from AssetMark’s deep experience and scale. Our complementary strengths and cultural fit make AssetMark a natural partner, and together we can accomplish so much more for financial advisors.”
For the celebratory occasion, I made it up to AssetMark’s headquarters in Concord on Friday and met with Michael Kim, AssetMark’s President and Matthew Matrisian, Sr. Vice President and Chief Channel Officer to gain insights on what’s ahead to the new marriage.
Michael and Matt confirmed that Adhesion will continue to operate commercially as a standalone business at least for a while and will maintain its brand identity.
Kim told me that “Adhesion will offer RIAs, and financial advisors alike services that AssetMark does not offer such as highly scalable managed-account technology and services for portfolio personalization such as direct indexing, customized tax management, and tax transition services to wealth management and asset management enterprises.
AssetMark has been looking to grow for some time, with Wolfsen saying in November that the firm was actively looking for acquisitions that would help it add technologies and services for advisors.
“There’s a tremendous number of synergies between AssetMark and Adhesion,” says Barrett Ayers, president of Adhesion Wealth and one of the company’s founders. Ayers says no changes are expected among senior management and associates as a result of the deal, and the Adhesion brand will remain intact. “We feel the Adhesion name is a great one and one that advisors are familiar with,” Wolfsen says.
The deal comes as the outsourcing market continues to grow, with TAMPs managing over $2 trillion according to our research from the 2022 edition of America’s Best TAMPs
