The Colony Group acquires $2.8 billion New Providence Asset Management

The deal adds to what is already a record-breaking pace of consolidation in the RIA space, with 100 deals announced in the first six months of 2021.

The Colony Group, a $13 billion Boston-based RIA, is acquiring New Providence Asset Management, a $2.8 billion firm based in New York City.

The deal, which is expected to close Aug. 1, will give Colony a total of 16 offices and 275 team members nationwide.

Terms of the deal were undisclosed.

“New Providence’s Outsourced Chief Investment Officer solution for foundations and endowments substantially bolsters our current institutional practice. In addition, their unique investment capabilities, including their expertise with private funds, will broaden the opportunities we offer our family office clients,” said Colony Chairman and CEO Michael Nathanson in a prepared statement.

New Providence was founded in 2003 by John Vogelstein, who serves as the firm’s chairman, and is currently run by a team led by CEO Andrew Vogelstein and chief investment officer Pier Friend.

The firm was created as an OCIO firm for institutions, foundations, endowments, family offices, and ultra-high-net-worth individuals.

The Colony Group will provide New Providence’s institutional clients with additional services and support, and its ultra-high-net-worth clients with a full suite of family office and wealth management services. John Vogelstein will serve as Colony’s vice-chair emeritus, Andrew Vogelstein will join Colony’s executive team and serve as president of Colony’s Institutional Advisory Services, and Friend will serve as CIO of Colony’s Institutional Advisory Services.

“We founded New Providence almost 18 years ago to apply our investment experience and acumen to build an independent firm dedicated to providing the services of a full-time investment office to select families, foundations, and endowments. Joining Colony is a natural and logical next step in our evolution,” John Vogelstein said in a statement.

Colony, which has a history dating to 1986, was acquired by Focus Financial in 2012 when it managed $1.3 billion in client assets.

Focus CEO Rudy Adolf described the deal at the time as “one of the biggest transactions in the RIA space for the year.”

The current pace and size of the consolidation in the wealth management space would dwarf the Focus acquisition of Colony if it happened today.

According to the latest report from DeVoe & Co., there have already been 100 RIA deals this year, putting the industry on track for another record year.

This is the first time the industry has ever reached 100 deals this early in the year. Over the last two years, the 100-deal mark was reached in September. And in 2018, it took until December to reach 100 deals, according to DeVoe.