Atlanta-based SFA Partners announced this week that it has hired Michael Bryan to serve as Chief Growth Officer of Strategic Blueprint, an RIA with approximately $2.5 billion in assets under management.
Launched in 2017, Strategic Blueprint, part of the SFA Partners family of companies, aims to serve fee-based advisors who want to grow their business but offload some of the more burdensome tasks associated with running an RIA. Bryan will be responsible for attracting advisors to the platform, growing assets and enhancing its capabilities. These advisors can be either IAR-only, or hybrid advisors.
“We are delighted to have Michael as part of our team,” Jamie Mackay, President and Chief Operating Officer at SFA Partners, said in a company release. “His experience in the advisory space will be essential as we sharpen our focus on growth and set our sights for our next important milestone of hitting $5 billion in assets under administration.”
An Industry Pioneer Of The IAR-Only Model
Bryan joins Strategic Blueprint after spending the majority of his 25-year career at Triad Advisors, which became part of the Osaic network via acquisition in early 2020. The Osaic network rebranded last year from its prior identity as Advisor Group and is now attempting to cobble together eight firms into one.
Bryan is considered by many to be one of the early pioneers of the IAR-only business model.
In 2014, Bryan founded Triad Hybrid Solutions and was President of the platform for nearly a decade. According to industry sources, Bryan is considered by many to be one of the early pioneers of the IAR-only business model as a competitive alternative to either establishing one’s own RIA or being compelled to affiliate with both a dual registrant enterprise’s broker-dealer and its corporate RIA.
Move Follows Promotion Of Jamie Mackay To President
With Osaic experiencing continued waves of advisor defections in recent months, a prominent industry recruiter told WSR that the departure of Bryan, who also has past experience working for Fidelity’s institutional group, represents a significant loss of home office talent.
“Triad was one of the forerunners in the hybrid and IAR-only segments of the industry, and Michael was a key architect of the firm’s successful growth over the past decade,” the recruiting source said. “Dual registrant enterprises are all actively trying to figure out how to participate in the outsized growth and success of the RIA segment, but most of them are finding this to be a tough hill to climb.”
“Michael is one of those comparatively rare individuals who figured out early on how to enable a broker-dealer / RIA enterprise to tap into the RIA channel’s growth opportunities, and to do in a way that adds value for both the advisor and the enterprise. In that sense, Osaic’s loss is very much Strategic Blueprint’s gain.”
The announcement follows SFA Partners’ elevation last week of Jamie Mackay to President of the entire organization. Along with Strategic Blueprint, it includes a broker-dealer, corporate RIA and insurance arm.
Mackay previously served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of SFA Partners. As President, Mackay is continuing in his role as Chief Operating Officer.
Janeesa Hollingshead, Contributing Editor at Wealth Solutions Report, can be reached at editor@wealthsolutionsreport.com.
