SignatureFD CEO Heather Robertson Fortner has tapped registered funding advisor M&A veteran Peter Nesvold to hitch the agency’s board as she pushes to hit a aim of reaching $10 billion in property by the tip of this yr.
Nesvold’s appointment, efficient Feb. 1, is partially to assist information SignatureFD’s M&A and recruiting methods for “long-term worth creation,” in accordance with the agency, which has about $9.1 billion in property below administration.
Nesvold is the founder and managing accomplice of Nesvold Capital Companions, an RIA service provider financial institution investor and advisor. He was beforehand a accomplice and chief technique officer at Silver Lane Advisors, the place he labored alongside his spouse, founder and managing accomplice Elizabeth Nesvold, to construct the RIA investor and dealmaker towards an acquisition by Raymond James in 2019.
Fortner, who turned SignatureFD CEO in 2020, set a aim with the agency to develop its AUM about 20% yearly to achieve the $10 billion mark, a mark that might make the agency a “fairly respectable participant within the area and open up some totally different financing alternatives for us,” she stated.
Now that the RIA is near that time, Fortner and crew are chasing yet one more goal: reaching 10,000 households by 2030. To get there, she stated the agency must hold increasing its technological capabilities in addition to rising its advisor base via recruiting and profitable M&A.
“Peter is an skilled in monetary structuring and M&A, and we didn’t have that internally,” Fortner stated. “As we take into consideration the avenues that construct enterprise worth, that was the subsequent logical addition to the board that I believed we had been going to want.”
Nesvold stated his curiosity within the place got here from seeing the outcomes of the technique that Fortner has led.
“I might say that SignatureFD has cracked the code in terms of natural development,” he stated. “Whenever you take a look at the expansion profiles of quite a lot of RIAs, market flows can usually fill within the hole to supply a deceptive development quantity—within the case of SignatureFD, they’re really including households and new consumer inflows.”
Nesvold sees the subsequent steps for the agency as constructing its recruiting and acquisition features. Since SignatureFD doesn’t have exterior funding backing, the shopping for facet could also be tougher, however “different like-minded companies” in search of merger alternatives could also be an excellent match, he stated.
Earlier than Silver Lane Advisors, Nesvold was a portfolio supervisor at Bear Stearns and Lazard Asset Administration. He has additionally printed quite a few books on M&A, together with The Artwork of M&A Valuation and Modeling.
He’s the second high-profile board member Fortner has introduced on in latest months. In December, SignatureFD added former Orion founder and CEO Eric Clarke to assist with technological experience.
Fortner stated SignatureFD wants such in-house experience at this stage of its lifecycle because it seeks to consistently carry out alongside the three legs of the stool for premium valuation that Nesvold preaches: natural development, the power to recruit advisors and the power to win at M&A.
“Now the technique needs to be one, are you able to execute in all three on the identical time, and may you proceed to win in all three of these areas?” she stated.
Fortner added that, in terms of recruiting, she won’t solely be targeted on including advisors who’re good match, however with a private aim of about half of them being feminine advisors.
“I imagine that could be a massive differentiation for us as a corporation, but in addition so vital for our trade and for the way forward for what wealth appears to be like like,” she stated.
