F.L.Putnam Lands Biggest RIA to Date With $1B Wisconsin Team
F.L.Putnam Investment Management Company, a Lynnfield, Mass.-based registered investment advisor with more than $12 billion in assets under management, has made its largest acquisition to date with a deal for Red Granite, an affiliate of 1251 Capital Group, establishing the firm’s first presence in Wisconsin and adding a large cap growth equity strategy to its investment platform.
Red Granite joins F.L.Putnam with $1 billion in assets and an office in downtown Milwaukee, from which it will continue to operate, according to an announcement. The six-person team is led by Co-Chief Investment Officers Joel D. Vrabel and David J. Drzadinski, who have managed a large cap growth equity strategy together since 1996.
“The addition of Joel, David, and their team establishes our first presence in Wisconsin and our second location in the Midwest, while adding a differentiated large cap equity strategy to our investment platform,” F.L.Putnam CEO Tom Manning said in a statement.
Through the deal, F.L.Putnam will inherit Red Granite’s large cap growth equity strategy, which uses a strategy that aims to outperform the Russell 1000 Growth Index over a market cycle while maintaining lower risk and volatility.
“Joining FLP gives us the opportunity to bring our large cap equity strategy to a broader platform while continuing to focus on the work and client relationships that have driven our success for the past three decades,” Red Granite’s Drzadinski said in a statement.
Vrabel and Drzadinski were running Red Granite at F/m Investments, an affiliate of Boston-based 1251 Capital Group, according to BrokerCheck and LinkedIn. T. Rowe Price agreed to acquire F/m Investments in August and closed the deal on Monday. F/m had a reported $19 billion in AUM across exchange-traded funds, institutional separate accounts, and separately managed accounts.
F.L.Putnam has been acquiring at a steady pace under CEO Manning, with Red Granite marking the firm’s 12th acquisition since he took the job in 2015. The RIA announced its first acquisition in the Midwest in April with a deal to acquire Kalamazoo, Mich.-Based Arcadia Investment Management Corp., a firm managing $670 million in assets for high-net-worth individuals, families, endowments and foundations.
In July, the firm secured a new minority investment from Bixby Wealth Solutions, an arm of Moontower Group, while retaining majority employee ownership and control. Through that deal, RIA investor Emigrant Partners exited a minority position it had taken in 2022, when F.L. Putnam had about $6 billion under management.
