A California-registered investment advisory firm is continuing to expand its presence in Florida.
Modern Wealth Management has acquired Clearwater-based Flaharty Asset Management, which oversees approximately $1.1 billion in advisory and brokerage assets. The deal was announced earlier this month.
Led by Shon Flaharty and J. Hunter Orr, the company has an 18-person team, including nine advisors. It also has an office in Punta Gorda.
“Flaharty Asset Management has always been growth oriented,” said Modern Wealth Management co-founder and co-CEO Gary Roth. “They weren’t looking to slow down. They wanted a platform that could help them go faster and grow faster and that mindset lines up perfectly with how we think.”
The acquisition has been in the works for about six months.
“Location is really about, for us, where we have great opportunities and where we can build great client and advisor-facing teams,” Roth said. “As a state, broadly speaking, Florida might be the most attractive combination of large economy and strong growth.”
Many households are within “the target wealth center that we think we can serve best,” he added. The Tampa Bay market is “really right at the center of that growth.” Roth believes that the region offers “strong demographics” and a pro-business environment.
“But, none of that really matters unless we find the right local team to work with,” he said. “The Flaharty team already has deep relationships across the Tampa, St. Pete and Clearwater area. So, it’s not just entering the market, it’s building on a very strong foundation and working with the team there to keep growing.”
Modern Wealth Management announced the purchase of South Florida-based Legacy Wealth Management in April. The company oversees approximately $1.2 billion in client assets. This marked Modern Wealth’s entry into the Florida market.
Founded in 2023, Modern Wealth provides a variety of services including financial planning, tax preparation and estate planning. The organization’s first client-facing offices were located in Kansas, Missouri and Michigan.
Flaharty Asset Management is Modern Wealth’s 22nd acquisition and follows the purchase of Brown and Company in Colorado, which was announced in April. According to a prepared statement, the business “now manages more than $14 billion in assets across 20 offices nationwide.”
“Modern Wealth stood out because they understood our culture, our Malama philosophy of caring deeply for the people we serve, and our commitment to highly personal, planning-led advice,” said Flaharty Asset Management managing director Shon Flaharty in a statement to the Catalyst. “This partnership gives us added resources across technology, operations, tax, estate planning and growth, while allowing us to keep investing in our clients, our people and our local presence.”