Cerity Partners Adds $1.4 Billion From Shufro Rose
Cerity Partners is bringing a duo of advisory teams from a storied New York-based firm (collectively managing $1.4 billion) into its fold.
According to Cerity, the Contant-Leit and Wacht Groups of Shufo Rose & Co. will join forces under its brand. Cerity is also New York-based and has over $160 billion in client assets.
Four advisory teams operate within Shufro Rose, according to the firm’s website. But in addition to this week’s departures, two of the teams left for Wealth Enhancement in July, leaving the firm’s future uncertain.
According to John Contant, the principal and senior financial advisor with Shufro Rose & Co., “clients will receive the same personalized guidance from the same trusted team” at Cerity, backed by more “resources, expertise and capabilities.”
According to SEC records, Stephen Leit joined Shufro Rose in 1989, while Contant joined the firm in 1996, immediately after graduating from Lehigh University, according to the firm’s site (he was named a principal in 2004).
Harvey Wacht first registered in the late 1970s, with numerous registrations before joining Shufro Rose in 2001. The average client relationship has lasted 21 years, according to Cerity.
Houlihan Lokey represented both groups in the transition, with Katz Teller providing legal counsel. Lowenstein Sandler provided legal counsel to Cerity Partners.
According to the Shufro Rose website, it began in 1938 and is now working with the fourth generation of many families who came on as clients decades ago. It offers wealth management, financial, estate, tax and retirement planning and risk management services, as needed.
The Shufro-Glass Group and the Kaminsky-Silverman Group (which managed $760 million and $554 million, respectively) departed for Wealth Enhancement in July. Gregory Shufro and Steven Glass led the former team (Gregory’s grandfather, Salwyn Shufro, founded the firm in 1938).
The four teams comprised the entire set of advisory teams operating under the Shufro Rose umbrella, according to the firm’s website. Shufro Rose had been managing about $2.5 billion in assets before the July departures, according to its most recent Form ADV.
Representatives from Shufro Rose did not respond to a request for comment regarding the future of the firm.
Cerity was founded in 2009 to work with high- and ultra-high-net-worth individuals and families, business owners and institutions, providing financial, investment, tax and retirement planning. Earlier this month, the firm acquired Gilbert & Cook, a West Des Moines, Iowa-based firm with about $2 billion in assets. The deal is expected to close at the end of this month.
