{"id":192372,"date":"2025-12-19T21:12:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T21:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/192372\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T21:12:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T21:12:08","slug":"steward-partners-lands-475m-investment-from-ares-management","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/192372\/","title":{"rendered":"Steward Partners Lands $475M Investment from Ares Management"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steward Partners, an employee-owned hybrid partnership of independent advisory firms<\/a> with nearly $50 billion in client assets,\u00a0has raised $475 million in capital from alternative asset manager Ares Management, which comes in the form of a non-controlling minority stake and expanded lending relationship.<\/p>\n

The capital infusion from Ares rewards a combination of Steward\u2019s employee owners and minority interest holders, The Cynosure Group, which first invested in 2019<\/a>, and the Pritzker Organization, which invested in 2020<\/a>. Through the transaction, Ares will actually expand the equity stake for Steward employees to above 50%, with Cynosure and Pritzker also remaining on the capital table, according to senior leaders.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really kind of supercharges and brings the returns back to the people who are running the business and working in the business on a day-to-day,\u201d said Hy Saporta, co-founder, president and COO, noting that both advisors and support staff hold equity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Through the transaction, Cynosure and Pritzker are rolling over some equity. In addition, Keith Taylor, a managing director at Cynosure, will become chairman of the board of Steward. He will be replacing Michael McMahon, a firm founder who announced his retirement this year. \u00a0Taylor will also maintain his position as managing director of The Cynosure Group.<\/p>\n

Related:Deals & Moves: Wealth Enhancement Pens 3 Deals; EP Wealth Expands in Phoenix<\/a><\/p>\n

Jim Gold, co-founder and CEO, said McMahon had helped build the brand from its origins as a three-advisor shop managing $100 million in client assets back in 2013.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn December, Mike nominated Keith as his successor, who was unanimously approved by the board to be our new chair,\u201d Gold said. \u201cAs we look at the next chapter for Steward, we are thrilled to have Keith as our chair and to have access to him and his wisdom.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ares, which had already been a lender to Steward for dealmaking, will continue with an expanded credit facility for M&A and recruiting activities after a record year for Steward, in which Gold said the RIA closed 14 deals.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The CEO said the firm aims to generate $60 million in acquired revenue by 2026, with half of that already secured in its pipeline. (Steward M&A executives recently told <\/a>WealthManagement.com<\/a> the firm is on a path to $100 billion in total assets in the next several years.)<\/p>\n

The move also adds to Ares’ equity role in the RIA space. The private credit lender earlier this year\u00a0bought a minority stake\u00a0<\/a>in the $40 billion EP Wealth Advisors.<\/p>\n

Steward had nine other capital offers that it declined, partly due to the headline number requiring several stipulations the firm did not want to make, according to Gold. The deal with Ares, he said, fulfilled a goal of returning capital to employees, Cynosure, and Pritzker, while also establishing a robust credit line for M&A.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Related:Prime Capital Urges Court to Pause Edelman’s Lawsuit Alleging Trade Secret Theft<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was never about saying, we need to go raise capital,\u201d he said. \u201cWe wanted to do it the right way.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gold added that capital in the RIA space can often feel elusive to employees, with payouts materializing for the founders but not for the rest of the employee base.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not us, right?\u201d Gold said. \u201cThis transaction validates our value of the company.”<\/p>\n

Stamford, Conn.-based Steward initially grew through a 1099 independent contractor model. About three years ago, it transitioned away from the 1099 model to the W-2 integration model for future hires.<\/p>\n

The RIA currently has 628 partners, 301 advisors, and 80 offices in the U.S. It also has a broker\/dealer called Steward Partners Investment Solutions.<\/p>\n

Cynosure’s Taylor said his firm is bullish on the RIA space, where it has other investments, but is particularly in favor of the employee-owned model Steward has built.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did take a little bit of money off the table here, but mainly because we were trying to keep outside ownership in check and keep employee ownership growing, which I think is something that\u2019s really important,\u201d he said. \u201cAs evidenced by me accepting the chairman role, I think there\u2019s a ton to do here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related:Lenders: RIA Loan Activity Rose in 2025<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steward Partners, an employee-owned hybrid partnership of independent advisory firms with nearly $50 billion in client assets,\u00a0has raised…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":192373,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[138,246,111,139,69,244,245],"class_list":{"0":"post-192372","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-finance","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz","13":"tag-personal-finance","14":"tag-personalfinance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}