Former UBS Advisors Launch IFM Capital Advisors, A RIA with 3 Offices in the Rocky Mountain Region

DENVER & NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Focus Financial Partners, LLC, the largest partnership of independent wealth management firms, today announced the launch of IFM Capital Advisors (“IFM”), a Colorado-based independent Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) with offices in Denver, CO, Fort Collins, CO, and Sioux Falls, SD. Established by former UBS advisors Timothy Kneen and Clayton Hartman, who managed approximately $1 billion in client assets, IFM has been launched through Focus Connections, a program that helps wirehouse teams successfully transition their business and launch their own independent wealth management firm.

Mr. Kneen and Mr. Hartman have extensive industry experience, both serving as wealth advisors for more than two decades at UBS and Citigroup. With three offices, the firm will serve an array of clients including institutional, family office, and ultra-high net worth clients. Mr. Kneen will lead the Denver office of IFM, while Mr. Hartman will run the Fort Collins office. Former South Dakota State Senator Tom Dempster, also from UBS, joins the team heading the firm's Sioux Falls office.

“We have launched, managed and sold many businesses for ourselves and our clients, and knew we needed support in building the business we had always envisioned,” said Mr. Kneen, Founding Partner and Chief Investment Officer. “When we looked across the industry it was clear that Focus had the team, scale, and access we needed to successfully transition towards independence. Our desire to do right by clients and to harness our entrepreneurial spirit has come to life with IFM Capital Advisors.”

A highly accomplished team, the founding partners' experience is unique to the wealth management industry.

• Mr. Kneen has worked with institutional investors for more than 25 years. He has been the recipient of several prestigious awards including the “40 Under 40 Award” by the Denver Business Journal, “Top 100 Consultants in America” and “Top 1,000 Advisors” in Barron's, and named the #1 Consultant in Colorado by the Denver Business Journal. Mr. Kneen also served as President of Association of Professional Investment Management Consultants (APIC), where received the Tom Gorman award. He has started five companies, taken a company public and sold other companies to both synergistic and financial buyers.
• Mr. Hartman has spent more than 33 years addressing the complex needs of high net worth individuals, family foundations, endowments and business owners. Mr. Hartman was named one of Barron's “Top 1000 Advisors” for four consecutive years. He has been very active in the Fort Collins community, serving on the Board of Directors for Fort Collins United Way and the Fort Collins Cancer Society, and is the past chairman of the Poudre Valley Hospital Foundation.
• Mr. Dempster has been in the investment management business for more than 30 years, serving private and institutional clients. During this time, he has also served as a County Commissioner in South Dakota for nine years, and a South Dakota State Senator for eight years. He has been Chair of the Avera McKennan Board of Trustees and other foundations in the Sioux Falls area. Mr. Dempster is also an accomplished writer, having been published in the International Herald Tribune and USA Today.

“Clients are overwhelmingly supportive of this move and the reception has been highly positive,” said Mr. Hartman, Founding Partner and Chief Investment Officer of IFM. “Through the launch of IFM Capital Advisors, they know we will continue to enhance our offering of a full range of planning and investment services that are highly customized to meet their needs.”

Messrs. Hartman, Kneen, and Dempster, along with their team of 17 former UBS employees have over 100 years of investment experience. They will be joined by Rick Basford, Alan Beugg, Daniel Gamache, Jeffrey Gordon, Wayne Jamerson, Brian Sullivan, and Jennifer Thompson. IFM will provide investment management and financial planning to high net worth individuals, family office clients and institutions, and wealth transition services including business succession and philanthropic planning.

“Given the recent Centerbridge investment in Focus and the closing of our $550 million credit facility this month, we will continue using our unparalleled access to resources to invest in teams like IFM with,” said Rudy Adolf, CEO of Focus Financial Partners. “IFM is a prime example of the continuing trend of top-tier advisors leaving wirehouses. We are proud of our team's track record in facilitating successful transitions of sophisticated and complex businesses and helping them flourish for years to come.”

“Tim Kneen and Clayton Hartman's entrepreneurial DNA, their past successes as business owners, and their drive make them ideally suited to take their already successful business to new levels,” said Mindy Diamond, president and CEO of Diamond Consultants, who helped facilitate the deal. “Unshackled from the confines that UBS placed on them, Tim and Clayton will be able to market themselves and service clients in a whole new way.”

About IFM Capital Advisors

IFM Capital Advisors is an independent Registered Investment Advisor located in Denver, Colorado, Fort Collins, CO and Sioux Falls, SD. Founded in January 2014, IFM is led by a team of experienced financial advisors with 100 years of collective investment experience. IFM offers financial planning, portfolio management, asset allocation, retirement planning, tax, estate and philanthropic planning, risk management, and multi-generational wealth transfer services to individual and institutional clients. For more information, go to ifmcapital.com.

About Focus Financial Partners

Founded in 2006, Focus Financial Partners, LLC, is the leading international partnership of independent, fiduciary wealth management firms. With approximately $70 billion in total client assets and 27 partners, Focus provides unrivaled access to best practices, resources, and continuity planning for its partner firms who serve individuals, families, employers and institutions with wealth management, benefit and investment consulting services. Focus partner firms maintain their entrepreneurial independence, while they benefit from the synergies, scale, economics and best practices of the market leader to achieve their business objectives. Focus was included on Inc. magazine's 5000 ranking of the nation's fastest-growing private companies in 2011 and 2010. In 2012, Focus was named a Crain's New York Business “Fast 50” growth firm in New York City. For more information, please visit www.focusfinancialpartners.com.

Issued by FTI Consulting on behalf of Focus Financial Partners