{"id":851811,"date":"2026-09-18T06:28:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T06:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/851811\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T06:28:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T06:28:13","slug":"steward-partners-adds-950m-ria-run-by-former-pilot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/851811\/","title":{"rendered":"Steward Partners Adds $950M RIA Run By Former Pilot"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steward Partners, a Stamford, Conn.-based registered investment advisor with more than 175 advisory teams and about $57 billion in assets, has added a Marietta, Ga.-based RIA overseeing nearly $1 billion in client assets.<\/p>\n

American Financial Advisors, founded by Michael Stark in 1991, is moving to Steward\u2019s M&A hybrid platform, adding to Steward’s total asset count, which has been built up under CEO Jim Gold<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Scott Danner, chief growth officer and head of the legacy division for Steward, said the acquisitive RIA’s interest in the firm was partly due to Stark\u2019s story and being someone whose business \u201cis part of their life, not their whole life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stark served in the Marine Corps from 1976 to 1997, with part of his role flying A-4 and FA-18 aircraft, according to Steward and his LinkedIn page. He went on to become a pilot for Delta, where he began helping colleagues with their finances, leading him to found his own RIA.<\/p>\n

Related:Q&A: State Street Goes Live With Custody Offering<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe had dinner with [Michael] and his team, and we know that these are the kinds of people that we want to do business with,\u201d Danner said. \u201cOf course, the business matches what we\u2019re looking for. They\u2019re a billion dollars, they\u2019re service first and put their clients first …. But it\u2019s really about the story. And I still lean on the story every time because I\u2019m in a relationship over a transaction. Everything we\u2019re doing is relationships over transactions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stark built the firm over time, expanding beyond Delta employees to manage $950 million in client assets, according to the firm\u2019s most recent Form ADV. That knowledge and base of Delta employees, however, was also a draw for Steward, as was the Atlanta-area location in what is a growing market, said Valerie Rivera, chief operating officer, strategic growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a great market,\u201d Rivera said. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen lots of opportunities in and around the surrounding suburban area of Atlanta.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rivera said the deal market continues to be strong for Steward, with nine more in the pipeline and firm sizes larger than in recent years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t seen anything slowing down, but more so kicking up, and we\u2019re starting to see larger and larger teams, too,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In June, Steward landed its largest wirehouse breakaway team to date by bringing over former UBS advisors who had been managing $2.4 billion<\/a> in client assets with offices in Florida and New York.<\/p>\n

In its most recent RIA deals report<\/a>, consultancy and investment bank Echelon Partners said the industry has seen its most active second quarter to date, with private equity-backed firms dominating the market at 75.8% of transactions, an all-time high.<\/p>\n

Related:Knicks Star Jalen Brunson Launches Brand Advisory With Focus Support<\/a><\/p>\n

Steward is an employee-owned firm with minority investments from Ares Management, The Cynosure Group and the Pritzker Organization.<\/p>\n

Danner noted that, while there are large paydays being thrown around the RIA market, or what he called \u201cdrunken sailor\u201d offers, many are not a good fit for firms and don\u2019t pan out despite the high offers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look for the right fits, and I think we should always be in the right ballpark,\u201d he said. \u201cThe market will continue to pay quality for quality. I think that\u2019s the key.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steward Partners, a Stamford, Conn.-based registered investment advisor with more than 175 advisory teams and about $57 billion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":851812,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[28,147,530],"class_list":["post-851811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=851811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/851812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=851811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=851811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=851811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}