CityWire Americas - May 7, 2018
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Bolton Global Capital boss Ray Grenier is aiming to boost his group’s assets under management to $10 billion in the next two years and sees the potential for growth in the offshore market as limitless.
The independent broker-dealer, which since mid-2015 has recruited over a dozen international teams, is also currently recruiting a further ‘top team’ from a wirehouse.
The Bolton, Massachusetts-based firm currently has just under $8 billion in client assets, of which about $5 billion is made up by non-US residents.
‘In general we’ve been recruiting between $1.5 billion to $2 billion a year. We think the growth is unlimited for our business… especially as migration from the wirehouses continues,’ chief executive Grenier told Citywire Americas at its 2018 advisor conference in Miami on May 3.
Bolton has been successful in recruiting from wirehouses over the last three years, especially Merrill Lynch after the US giant increased its minimum account limits and cut access to a number of countries in 2015.
The second area of opportunity, said Grenier (pictured), lies in gaining more traction from internationally registered offshore advisors. Secrecy laws in Switzerland come into play later this year meaning more wealthy foreigners will want to transfer wealth to the more cost-effective and time zone-friendly US.
Bolton currently has 12 affiliates outside the US from Brazil, Geneva, Uruguay and Panama. It’s also working to sign on a firm that is in the process of obtaining its global advisor license in Argentina, known as the AAGI.
Latin American wealth, which makes up most of Bolton’s offshore books, is expected to increase from $3.3 trillion in 2016 to $7.1 trillion in 2025, according to figures from PWC’s asset and wealth management research.
Referring to those figures and speaking to the over 132 attendees at the conference, Grenier said: ‘There is a lot of growth in LatAm market, much more than the US, and that’s a huge opportunity for everyone in this room.’
Grenier also reported that over the last five years Bolton has nearly tripled its client assets and revenue, which roughly works out to an annual compound growth rate of 22.5%. Over 2017 alone, the firm added $2.4 billion in assets under management.
He credited in part his firm’s ‘by invitation only’ approach to recruitment, which depends on referrals from its current affiliates.
‘Almost all our new teams come to us through referrals by our existing affiliates. We find that they are the best judges of the colleagues who conduct a high quality business and understand that in our highly-regulated industry and our highly-regulated world we all have a vested interest in affiliating with only the best people.’
At the two-day event, the firm also unveiled new products and services for its affiliates, including new loan capabilities through TriState Lending and markets and investment research via Capital Economics Research.