Steward Inks Deal for Umpqua Bank’s $3.4 Billion-Asset Wealth Business
Steward Partners, an independent firm associated with Raymond James Financial Services, has agreed to buy the $3.4 billion-asset wealth management business of Portland, Oregon-based Umpqua Bank, according to an announcement on Monday.
The deal is the first firm acquisition for Steward, which has grown more piecemeal by hiring individual advisors, primarily from wirehouse firms, since its founding in 2013. It has 22 offices and about 130 advisors in New England, the Mid-Atlantic states and several in the South.
Steward is on track to generate around $100 million in revenue this year, said Chief Executive Jim Gold. The addition of Umpqua and other advisors should raise the total to close to $150 million next year, he added, saying the firm hopes to expand its recruiting beyond Oregon to other parts of the West Coast.
“We needed to have an opportunity like this where you get this very large franchise, and you get the leadership team, and this becomes a launching pad for a much larger West Coast expansion,” Gold said.
Umpqua advisors who join Steward will receive a cash and equity retention offer, according to Gold. If all 23 advisors join, they will be the largest boost to Steward’s revenue since it recruited a $6-million independent practice from Advisor Group in Clayton, Missouri, in June.
Steward will open a branch in the Portland suburb of Lake Oswego to house the Umpqua advisors, and have a few satellite offices for brokers outside Portland, Gold said.
Umpqua Investments, the Oregon bank’s broker-dealer, will close down, and the bank will refer clients seeking wealth management services to Steward, said Umpqua Investments CEO J. Eric Field.
Field, who joined Umpqua Investments in 2018 from Seattle-based Russell Investments, will become Steward’s sixth divisional manager, and will oversee West Coast recruiting. Jeani Winterbourne, Umpqua Investments’ president, will be deputy chief operating officer for Steward.
Winterbourne, a 30-year industry veteran who worked at Smith Barney and UBS Wealth Management USA, hired several Smith Barney Morgan Stanley advisors after joining Umpqua in 2009. Gold, like many of Steward’s executives, is a former Smith Barney manager, but said he did not know Umpqua officials before meeting them over Zoom around three months ago.
Steward was introduced to Umpqua through Silver Lane Advisors, a financial services-focused investment bank acquired by Raymond James last year. Its bankers approached Cynosure, Steward’s private equity backer, about a deal.
Umpqua decided about 14 months ago to seek a buyer as operational and recruiting costs in wealth management were growing, Feld said. The bank evaluated around 40 prospective buyers, he said.
