The Miller Financial Services team. (Courtesy Bleakley)
After starting his wealth management practice in Richmond 38 years ago, Jeff Miller recently made a move he never expected to make.
His West End firm Miller Financial Services became part of Bleakley Financial Group this spring, through an acquisition that gives Bleakley its first foothold in the competitive Richmond financial advisory market.
The March 24 deal brings Miller, along with his partners Chris Glasscock and Colin Smith, and a total team of eight to Bleakley.
It includes maintaining Miller’s offices at 504 Libbie Ave. and St. Petersburg, Florida, as well as a Sarasota, Florida office expected to open next year.
The deal brings together two groups that had been rooted at industry powerhouse Northwestern Mutual.
Bleakley was created by a group of longtime Northwestern Mutual advisors who broke off on their own about 10 years ago led by CEO Andy Schwartz. It has since grown to nearly $12 billion in client assets under management and 16 locations. The Richmond office is the firm’s 17th.
Miller, a University of Richmond graduate, founded his own firm within Northwestern Mutual in 1987 at age 21. After three decades there, Miller hadn’t put much thought into leaving until Schwartz, a longtime friend and colleague came calling.
Jeff Miller
“I had zero interest in selling,” Miller said. “I really love everything about Northwestern Mutual but I know, love and trust Andy. He was most likely the greatest mentor I had in my business growing up.”
Miller said he was also attracted to Bleakley’s offerings for increased technological capabilities for his practice, particularly for financial planning.
“Some of the tools at Bleakley were so intriguing that I shifted my thinking, which was ‘I could never leave Northwestern,’” he said. “This was simply an opportunity to partner with a tech-forward platform. This partnership gives our firm the ability to deliver at the highest of levels.”
Schwartz said the deal with Miller was fueled by Bleakley taking on investment capital last year from private equity-backed Rise Growth Partners, which will allow it to make more of the same sort of acquisitions it just made in Richmond.
Another in Idaho – also involving a team from Northwestern – coincided with the Miller deal, adding around $1 billion in client assets to Bleakley between the two.
“We made a deal with Rise last august which really put us into growth mode,” Schwartz said.
Despite the connections in the two most recent deals, Schwartz said Bleakley isn’t specifically targeting additional Northwestern advisors, nor does it have a specific geographical strategy in mind as it continues its hunt for deals.
Andy Schwartz
“It’s not necessarily to acquire other Northwestern teams… what we’re interested in is high quality, growth-oriented advisors,” Schwartz said.
Miller, who is now an equity partner in Bleakley as part of the deal, said he’ll continue to use some form of his firm’s brand for the foreseeable future. For now his office is dubbed Miller Financial Services at Bleakley.
That’s at least until Bleakley carries out a broader rebrand of its own name, which Schwartz said is expected at some point soon.
For Miller, regardless of the name of the firm, he said he’s most excited about continuing his practice he started fresh out of school all those years ago.
“It’s pretty remarkable at 59 to be on a new and exciting path,” Miller said. “I’m in growth mode and have a long trajectory left.”
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