US: Evensky group dissolves partnership
The founding members of the Evensky Group are dissolving their partnership only weeks before finalising finances they had sought for part of a US$45 million financial planning empire.
Husband and wife partners Harold Evensky and Deena Katz will pull their planning firm, Evensky, Brown & Katz, out of the Evensky Group holding company to pursue their "private family office" vision on their own.
Neither party has disclosed any reasons for the business divorce, however, industry speculation about the timing suggests the problems were significant, according to a report inFinancial Planning Magazinein the US.
Earlier this year, Evensky Group missed its self-imposed deadline of the end of March for its US$25 million first round of funding.
The funding would have enabled the holding company to buy five financial planning firms mid-way through this year, giving the group its first step in its pursuit of its proposed US$45 million empire.
Evensky says landing an investment bank for funding was a crucial step, but the funding was still a couple of weeks away. Now, according to Evensky, funding might be as far away as a couple of months.
The Evensky Group's vision of private family offices for the affluent market would require the firm to partner with regional accounting and law firms to handle tax and estate-planning issues. The firm also would offer mortgage financing, auto leasing, bill paying, college planning, and trust and fiduciary investment services.
Despite the departure of the founding members, Evensky Group CEO Richard DeWitt will retain the holding company, changing its name as well as pursuing the private family office concept.
DeWitt said in an article that the extended fund raising effort did play a role in the "amicable separation".
He said when the trio set out last year to build Evensky Group, Evensky and Katz rolled their independent firm into the holding company, effectively bankrolling the new effort to date.
DeWitt says that over time, the fund-raising delay presented "some issues" for his co-founders' firm.
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