Arete Wealth to Acquire $800M San Francisco Firm

Arete Wealth Management has announced the acquisition of Portsmouth Financial Services, a San Francisco-based broker-dealer and registered investment advisory firm with over $800 million in assets under management.

With the addition of Portsmouth Financial Services, Chicago-based Arete Wealth will now have approximately 40 additional advisors.

The announcement concludes the multi-year search and will see Portsmouth’s owners operate an office of supervisory jurisdiction branch office of Arete Wealth and retain the Portsmouth DBA, as part of a unique Arete Wealth “tuck-in” program.

Portsmouth’s 40 advisors will continue managing accounts at Pershing, while their clients will now benefit from expanded access to Arete Wealth’s technology, brokerage services, multi-custodial advisory solutions, electronic insurance and annuity systems, and alternative investment platform.

Chairman Ray Lent and CEO Echo Chien will continue to lead Portsmouth Financial Services, collaborating with the Arete Wealth home office and executive team.

“By leveraging Arete Wealth’s infrastructure, we gain time, capacity, and capabilities to elevate our wealth management platform and enable our financial professionals to provide more solutions and enhanced services for clients,” Lent said.

Arete Wealth was founded in 2007 and has about $6.1 billion in assets and employs about 230 wealth advisors in more than 50 offices around the country, according to the firm.