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Industry Spotlight > RIAs

Focus Financial’s Adolf Steps Down as CEO

By Janet Levaux

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Focus Financial Partners says that co-founder and CEO Rudy Adolf has passed the reins on an interim basis to Dan Glaser, an operating partner with Clayton, Dubilier & Rice — the private investment firm that bought Focus for $7 billion in August.

Focus Financial’s board has started its search for a new leader, with Adolf set to fully retire at year-end. Adolf founded the RIA aggregator in 2004 and took it public in 2018. 

Glaser has worked with firms in the financial services industry for four decades, according to CD&R. Before joining the private equity firm in January, he was president and CEO of the professional services firm Marsh McLennan. 

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank Rudy Adolf for his vision in building Focus Financial into an impressive wealth management organization that always puts our clients’ interests first,” Glaser said in a statement. “Rudy is an industry pioneer and leaves a strong legacy of innovation and entrepreneurship at Focus.”

Some of Focus Financial’s roughly 90 partner firms — which work with over $350 billion in assets — are Bartlett Wealth Management, Buckingham Strategic Wealth, Connectus Wealth Advisers, Crestwood Advisors, Douglas C. Lane & Associates, GW & Wade, Joel Isaacson & Co., Kovitz Investment Group, The Colony Group and Williams Jones Wealth Management.

After the sale of Focus to CD&R, co-founders Rajini Kodialam and Lenny Chang stepped down from their respective positions as COO and head of M&A, according to a report in WealthManagement. Along with Adolf, the firm’s three co-founders made an estimated $323 million on the deal, analysis by CityWire found.

(Shown in photo: Rudy Adolf)

Janet Levaux

@Think_JanetL

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