Focus Facilitates GW & Wade, The Colony Group Merger

Focus Financial Partners Inc., a registered investment advisor aggregator, has completed its second intra-partnership merger under its new “hub” strategy.

The transaction, which is expected to close in the first quarter, will combine $10.4 billion GW & Wade and $21.1 billion Colony Group. Upon completion of the deal, GW & Wade will operate as GW & Wade at The Colony Group.

GW & Wade, led by principals Roger Wade and Tim Pinch, has been a longtime Focus partner, joining in 2007. The firm specializes in tax planning, financial planning, asset management, retirement and estate planning.

“Over the years, Focus has become home to many outstanding wealth management firms, and it is exciting to see two of them joining forces. We expect that, through opportunistic mergers such as this one, Focus will continue to facilitate the accelerated evolution of firms that choose such a path,” said Michael Nathanson, CEO of The Colony Group and President of Focus.

The deal is Colony’s second after agreeing to have Focus buy out its management team in late 2023. The buyout was carried out with the goal of transforming Colony into a hub firm that will acquire other Focus network RIAs.

Focus finalized an agreement in August 2023 to sell to private equity firms Clayton, Dubilier, and Rice and Stone Point Capital for more than $7 billion, taking the company private.