Prime Capital brings in Carlyle as minority investor; 170 advisors own equity

Prime Capital Financial’s August recapitalization ended Abry Partners’ minority stake and brought in Carlyle as a minority investor, according to WealthManagement.com. About 170 of its advisors own equity, and the firm says 95% of its $52 billion in assets under management is managed by equity-owning advisors.

A group of advisors bought the firm from founder Kerry Lawing in 2017 and launched Prime Capital Financial in January 2018 with about $2.5 billion in AUM. Since then the firm has completed roughly 30 acquisitions and grown advisor count from 40 to 225, CEO Glenn Spencer said. The business dates to the 1980s, when Lawing Financial was a life insurance operation; it hired Edward Jones advisors in 1997 and formed one of Kansas's first registered investment advisors that year, according to Spencer.

Prime Capital holds $2.5 billion in alternative investments and runs a tax advisory business generating $14 million in revenue. Spencer describes the firm as a wealth advisory business rather than an investment advisor. Other services include trust and estate work, a multi-family office, banking, insurance-transaction consulting and institutional consulting for endowments and foundations. Nearly 20% of revenue comes from those ancillary services, Spencer said.

In September the firm hired Mark Hays, a veteran of Glenmede and Cambridge, to lead a practice aimed at nonprofits holding $5 million to $250 million, according to PWD's earlier reporting.

The $52 billion figure is the firm’s own, while regulatory records list $39.1 billion in regulatory assets under management across 55,376 accounts and 460 employees as of Oct. 10. Form ADV regulatory assets under management and a marketed headline figure count different pools of assets, which can explain the gap.