Former Captrust government Rush Benton is becoming a member of Coldstream Holdings’ board of administrators, changing Cascadia Capital CEO and Chairman Michael Butler after a 13-year run on the board.
Benton’s profession within the trade extends to 13 years as founder and CEO of WealthTrust, a holding firm for wealth administration companies, and as a managing companion at Benton Capital Companions, the place he provided M&A strategic advisory companies for RIAs and different wealth administration gamers.
As the top of wealth administration M&A at Captrust, Benton helped enhance the agency’s property by natural development and buying unbiased fee-based RIAs. After 11 years on the agency, Benton launched the funding banking agency Gorman Jones in June.
Total, Benton has been concerned in additional than 70 M&A offers all through his tenure within the trade. In accordance with Coldstream Managing Shareholder Kevin Fitzwilson, the board was “thrilled” to welcome Benton.
“Rush has one of the in depth wealth administration M&A backgrounds of anybody in our trade, making him an important asset as we proceed to execute our longtime mergers and acquisitions technique, which prioritizes constant year-over-year development but in addition locations an emphasis on the agency remaining unbiased and employee-owned,” he mentioned.
Coldstream is an employee-owned and unbiased Bellevue, Wash.-based RIA based in 1996. It has seven areas throughout 4 states and greater than $10 billion in property below advisement.
Earlier this fall, Coldstream Wealth Administration merged with Arnerich Massena, a Portland, Ore.-based RIA, with about $2 billion in managed property. The latter agency now operates as Workforce Rae, with all 19 workers (together with seven advisors) shareholders of Coldstream.
As a part of the Anerich Massena deal, Reegan Rae, the agency’s co-CEO, managing principal and senior funding advisor, additionally joined Coldstream’s board of administrators.
That deal capped a number of Pacific Northwest-focused mergers that helped it double in measurement over the earlier three years with out taking any exterior capital. In 2021, the agency acquired the $1.4 billion Mercer Island, Wash.-based Paracle Advisors, adopted shortly by Seattle-based agency Rosenbaum Monetary.
Final fall, Coldstream merged with Seidman Capital Group, a wealth administration agency, and Hersman Serles Almond, which supplies accounting and consulting companies. In 2023, Coldstream introduced on trade veteran Matt Sonnen as its new chief working officer to assist onboard the brand new companies.
On the time of the Arnerich Massena deal, Fitzwilson instructed WealthManagement.com that the agency was “taking the trail much less traveled of staying actually unbiased” by not taking exterior capital.
“That’s not been some form of bold development plan to hit some quantity by some date as a result of some spreadsheet instructed us to do it from some PE (non-public fairness) agency, he mentioned. “It’s been extra so discovering like-minded companions.”
