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Company Details
Dakota Wealth Management was founded in May 2018 with a vision to create a truly boutique wealth management firm. The firm’s mission is to foster mutual growth through strategic acquisitions and alliances, providing exceptional client service and innovative strategies. The name "Dakota" translates to "friends and allies" in the Lakota language, reflecting the firm's ethos and culture.
Dakota Wealth Management positions itself as a comprehensive wealth management firm dedicated to enhancing generational wealth for its clients. The firm emphasizes a personalized approach, blending art and science to craft bespoke investment portfolios tailored to each client's unique preferences, objectives, and circumstances.
Their suite of services includes:
- Investment Management: Utilizing a mix of stocks, bonds, and ETFs, Dakota constructs portfolios that align with individual client goals and risk tolerances.
- Financial Planning: Advisors assist clients in creating plans aimed at achieving specific financial objectives, whether singular or multiple.
- Tax Services: Offering tax planning strategies and compliance services for individuals, families, businesses, and organizations.
- Trust and Estate Planning: Ensuring clients have effective estate plans to leave the legacies they've earned.
- Divorce Planning: Providing specialists certified in the financial aspects of divorce to guide clients through the process
Dakota's team of experienced professionals is committed to understanding each client's family dynamics, lifestyle, and financial goals, acting as both allies and advocates. This approach fosters a comprehensive wealth management experience that includes tax and estate planning, philanthropy, and generational wealth transfer.
By focusing on personalized service and innovative strategies, Dakota Wealth Management aims to elevate wealth management to an art form, ensuring that each client's vision is meticulously crafted into a financial masterpiece.
Dakota offers financial advisors a comprehensive and client-focused investment philosophy designed to enhance their practice. The approach emphasizes purpose-built, risk-aware portfolios that are individually tailored to meet the unique goals, preferences, and circumstances of each client. Advisors joining Dakota gain access to a proven framework, proprietary strategies, and extensive resources to deliver a highly personalized and sophisticated investment experience.
The process begins with a thorough understanding of each client’s financial goals, lifestyle, and risk tolerance. This foundation ensures the creation of bespoke portfolios that go beyond generic, computer-generated solutions, focusing instead on tailored strategies that adapt to evolving market conditions and client needs.
Portfolios are constructed using a range of investment vehicles, including:
- Traditional Investments: Individual stocks, bonds, and ETFs.
- Alternative Investments: Private equity, REITs, and tax-efficient funds.
- Proprietary Strategies: Custom-designed by Dakota portfolio managers, with specific mandates, rules-based processes, and clearly defined parameters.
- Advanced Options Strategies: Designed to mitigate risk and reduce volatility.
Asset allocation strategies incorporate a diversified mix of equity, fixed income, and alternative asset classes, offering both tactical and strategic solutions that align with various risk-return profiles. Alternative strategies provide non-correlated returns, supplementing core portfolios and enhancing diversification.
In addition to investment management, Dakota provides comprehensive wealth management services, including tax and estate planning, philanthropy, and generational wealth transfer. These services empower advisors to address complex client needs and offer holistic solutions that strengthen long-term relationships.
The firm’s emphasis on independent research, tactical decision-making, and client-specific portfolio management allows advisors to provide a level of service that distinguishes their practice. With direct access to portfolio managers and robust operational support, Dakota fosters a collaborative environment where advisors can focus on growing their practice while delivering exceptional client outcomes.
By aligning with Dakota, financial advisors gain the tools, expertise, and resources necessary to meet the demands of discerning clients and elevate their practice to new heights.
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Acquisition Model
Full Acquisition
Yes. DWM believes that in order to have complete alignment with its partners, they should own a meaningful percentage of equity. DWM is an employee-owned firm, with almost 90% of employees owning equity.
Yes
Max Cash: 90%
Max Equity: 50%
Dakota's standard terms are 40% held in retention over a three year period.
Dakota Wealth's compensation model revolves primarily around meeting the owner's cash flow requirements post-close. Typically, it starts with evaluating a minimum replacement cost level, approximately 20% of revenue. Following the completion of deal payments, it transitions into a continual share of new revenue or profit growth, contingent upon the deal structure. This approach offers flexibility and is customized to cater to the unique needs and objectives of the owner.
Mandatory Points of Alignment
To promote a unified firm and be able to support partners in various marketing intitatives, Dakota asks all partners to adopt their brand immediately.
Dakota will centralize all back-office functions (accounting, payroll, HR, billing) so the advisor can focus on the business aspects they enjoy doing.
Advisors are encouraged to utilize the expanded services offered by Dakota, but the advisors maintain full discretion on all client reccomendations.
Showcasing their appreciation for entrepreneurial spirit and flexibility in strategy management, it is not required to centralize the P&L.
While Dakota does not interfere with how their partner delivers their client experience, they are dedicated to providing as many resources as possible to support advisors so they can offer customized solutions that encompass tax and estate planning.
Dakota provides support in practice management, but adoption is not required. This assistance includes defining staff roles and responsibilities for the local office, and guidance in employee reviews and performance management. Dakota also offers collaboration with partners to identify and implement strategic growth initiatives and help identify key performance indicators (KPIs) to provide a framework for success.
Dakota understands partners have their own way of managing money, so advisors can maintain their own strategies; however, they are required to centralize trading for compliance purposes.
Advisor Value Proposition
Dakota Wealth Management offers a compelling value proposition for advisors considering partnership or acquisition, focusing on enhancing growth, operational efficiency, and client service. Key benefits include:
Transition, Succession, and Next-Generation Positioning: Recognizing the aging demographic within the Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) industry, Dakota emphasizes the importance of formal succession planning as a fiduciary duty. The firm provides a multigenerational leadership structure to ensure seamless client service continuity and is committed to developing and mentoring the next generation of investment advisors.
Economies of Scale: By partnering with Dakota, firms can achieve faster organic growth through the transfer of back and middle-office responsibilities, access to the firm's investment team's expertise, and efficiencies gained from Dakota's processes and technology infrastructure.
Comprehensive Service Offerings: Dakota provides in-house investment management, estate and wealth planning, legal, and tax advisory services, enabling partner firms to offer a broader and enhanced suite of services to their clients.
Operational Support and Technology: The firm has developed a scalable and efficient platform utilizing best-in-industry technology and consulting services, allowing client-facing team members to focus on advisory roles by offloading non-revenue-generating tasks.
Leadership and Professional Growth Opportunities: Principals who partner with Dakota have the opportunity to play meaningful roles in the firm's management and evolution, fostering leadership and professional development for both existing executives and the next generation.
Overall, Dakota Wealth Management positions itself as a partner that not only facilitates operational efficiencies and growth but also prioritizes succession planning, comprehensive client service, and professional development within a collaborative and innovative culture.
While there is no formal para-planning team, Dakota has an investment committee and estate planning experts whom advisors can leverage. They specialize in tax prep and planning, estate and trust planning, and divorce planning. Dakota Wealth also supports partners by offering additional technological capabilities, internal personnel resources, educational seminars/training, and team-oriented communication.
DWM provides a dedicated back-office team to handle administrative tasks, compliance, HR, billing, and client service needs. This allows advisors to focus on client relationships and business growth.Firms that partner with Dakota experience faster organic growth as they are able to transfer back and middle office responsibilities, utilize their Investment Team’s knowledge and insight, and gain efficiencies from their processes and technology stack.
"We can free up the advisors from their back office, the compliance, the operations pieces that they really can drive business and concentrate on their clients." - Marie Albin
Dakota offers expanded services for partners joining through acquisition, including:
- Tax Preparation and Planning: Provided through Dakota Tax Services, a boutique affiliate of Dakota Wealth Management, offering customized solutions for clients.
- Advanced Tax and Estate Planning: Expertise in trust and estate planning to preserve wealth, minimize taxes, and facilitate seamless wealth transfer, tailored to individual client needs.
- Divorce Planning: Specialized support from Certified Divorce Financial Analysts™ (CDFA®) addressing tax implications, asset distribution, and financial planning during divorce, with a collaborative, holistic approach.
For financial advisors, joining Dakota through acquisition grants access to specialized teams and resources for advanced estate and divorce planning, enabling you to enhance your practice with comprehensive, value-added services.
DWM provides a range of branded marketing materials and a marketing library that advisors can customize for their clients. The firm also offers event coordination and support for large Dakota-sponsored events.
DWM invests in brand awareness campaigns and media initiatives that feed into local offices, providing advisors with additional growth opportunities.
- Results: Advisors at DWM have grown on average by 29% (2023-2024).
Dakota Wealth extends support in practice management as an optional resource, respecting partners' autonomy in its adoption. This support includes defining staff roles and responsibilities at local offices, as well as providing guidance in employee reviews and performance management. Dakota Wealth collaborates with partners to identify and implement strategic growth initiatives. Additionally, they assist in identifying key performance indicators (KPIs) to establish a framework for success.
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