Clearstead Advisors, a Cleveland-based registered funding advisor with over $47 billion in property below advisement, has named Bradley Knapp as its new president and CEO, succeeding David C. Fulton Jr., who has led the agency since 2014. The change will take impact Jan. 1, and is a part of a longstanding succession plan. Fulton will stay on the board of administrators.
Based in 1989, Clearstead was overseeing about $29 billion in property when non-public fairness investor Flexpoint Ford purchased a 60% stake in 2022. The agency has since added a New Mexico belief firm, its second belief acquisition, and accomplished a handful of different additions. The agency serves almost 300 institutional purchasers.
Underneath Fulton’s management, Clearstead has grown income, earnings, property below advisement and the variety of staff. The agency has accomplished 11 offers prior to now decade. It now has 250 professionals throughout places of work in 9 cities.
Knapp joined Clearstead in 2016 as head of the non-public shopper group and in 2018, took on duty for the belief follow. In 2023, he was named president. Previous to becoming a member of Clearstead, he was a senior vice chairman at Hawthorn.
“Brad is a outstanding chief who has been instrumental to strategic initiatives at Clearstead, together with accelerating natural progress by the addition of latest channels and holistic service choices, investing in expertise to enhance the shopper and advisor expertise, and increasing our geographic footprint by integrating plenty of strategic acquisitions,” Fulton mentioned in a press release.
This follows information in October that Clearstead employed Jean Heath to steer nationwide gross sales for the agency’s advisor options providing. Heath was beforehand a managing director and head of the asset supervisor community at Envestnet.
In April, the RIA introduced the acquisition of Wilbanks Smith and Thomas Asset Administration, a Norfolk, Va.-based RIA with about $5 billion in shopper property serving particular person households, establishments and different monetary companies companies. That deal was its largest up to now.
