Finance
Elite Team Managing $1.5 Billion in Assets Joins Ameriprise Financial for Sophisticated Resources to Take Their Practice to the Next Level
The team of five financial advisors say their high-net-worth clients will benefit from Ameriprise’s innovative and fully integrated digital capabilities
MINNEAPOLIS, August 13, 2024–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Q5 Wealth Management, a financial advisory team managing $1.5 billion in client assets in Beaumont and Houston, Texas, recently joined the independent channel of Ameriprise Financial, Inc. (NYSE: AMP) from UBS Financial Services, Inc. Financial advisors Omar Bitar, Jeremy Saba, Mike Persia, Ed Persia, and Brad Klein conducted an extensive search for a new broker-dealer and chose Ameriprise for the firm’s robust resources to elevate their high-net-worth clients’ experience and significantly scale their practice. Specifically, the advisors were energized by Ameriprise’s innovative and fully integrated digital capabilities that will make it more efficient to consistently exceed clients’ expectations.
Reflecting on the move, Mike Persia said, “Clients are the core of everything we do, and they trust us to provide advice that propels them to reach their unique goals in life. Our team continually evaluates the way we’re doing business to ensure we’re delivering them the highest value. We saw an opportunity with Ameriprise to enhance our client offering and better position our practice for future growth.”
Q5 Wealth Management serves high-net-worth clients across the United States. The team specializes in advising on complex financial situations for individuals planning for retirement, families and business owners. “It’s our job as advisors to make it as easy as possible for clients to manage their financial lives in a comprehensive way,” Jeremy Saba added. “Ameriprise has leading capabilities that create efficiencies for clients and our team, as well as a sophisticated wealth management platform equipped with the products and services our clients want and need.”
The team chose to join Ameriprise’s independent channel because it offered the right balance of tenured support from leadership and flexibility to run their practice their way.
“We’re excited to welcome Q5 Wealth Management to our Ameriprise network,” said Ameriprise Field Vice President Logan Clipp. “Ameriprise is very thoughtful about the advisors we choose to partner with because we put significant time and resources into helping each one grow and serve clients exceptionally well. Omar, Jeremy, Mike, Ed, and Brad exemplify what it means to run a growth-focused, client-centric practice.”
Ameriprise Regional Vice President Tres Rouquette also supports the team.
The team includes their supporting staff, Investment Specialists Kevin Wagner and Ashley Carter, Client Service Managers Sherri Thompson, Brandy Head and Taryn King, and Client Concierge Dena McNiel.
Ameriprise has continued to attract experienced, productive financial advisors, with more than 400 advisors moving their practices to Ameriprise in 2023 and approximately 1,700 joining the firm in the last 5 years.1 To find out why experienced financial advisors are joining Ameriprise, visit ameriprise.com/why.
About the Ameriprise Ultimate Advisor Partnership
The Ameriprise Ultimate Advisor Partnership offers a differentiated experience for advisors that helps them accelerate growth while delivering an excellent client experience. Combined with the company’s culture of support and independence, the Ultimate Advisor Partnership enables advisors to scale their businesses, deepen client relationships and drive referrals for future growth.
About Ameriprise Financial
At Ameriprise Financial, we have been helping people feel confident about their financial future for 130 years. With extensive investment advice, asset management and insurance capabilities and a nationwide network of approximately 10,000 financial advisors2, we have the strength and expertise to serve the full range of individual and institutional investors’ financial needs.
Ameriprise Financial cannot guarantee future financial results.
Ameriprise Financial Services, LLC is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
Investment products are not insured by the FDIC, NCUA or any federal agency, are not deposits or obligations of, or guaranteed by any financial institution, and involve investment risks including possible loss of principal and fluctuation in value.
Securities offered by Ameriprise Financial Services, LLC. Member FINRA and SIPC.
©2024 Ameriprise Financial, Inc. All rights reserved.
1 Ameriprise Financial 2023 10-K.
2 Ameriprise Financial Q2 2024 Earnings Release.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240813289340/en/
Contacts
Alison Mueller, Media Relations
612.678.7183
alison.g.mueller@ampf.com
BlackRock (BLK) CEO Larry Fink said Thursday that he is not planning to leave the company “anytime soon,” offering no new clarity on who may ultimately succeed him as boss of the world’s largest money manager.
For some time, investors have wondered when the 72-year-old Fink is going to step down. He co-founded the firm in 1988 and built it into a financial giant that now manages more than $11 trillion.
Some potential successors have exited the firm recently, raising more questions about succession.
They include Mark Wiedman, who had been head of BlackRock’s global client business and now has a top job at PNC Financial Services Group (PNC). Another recent high-profile exit was Salim Ramji, who is now the chief executive of BlackRock rival Vanguard Group.
“I’m not planning to leave BlackRock anytime soon,” Fink told an audience at the firm’s annual investor day in New York City, “so you don’t have to have those questions later on.”
But he added that “a top priority” for himself and BlackRock president Rob Kapito is “working with the board” to make sure “we’re developing the next generation of leaders for BlackRock.”
BlackRock under Fink is in the middle of a significant shift toward private markets.
Last year, the company spent more than $28 billion on related acquisitions, including purchases of infrastructure investment firm Global Infrastructure Partners, private markets data provider Preqin, and private credit firm HPS Investment Partners.
Given that push into private markets, the question of who might lead the world’s biggest asset manager next is rising in importance, Cathy Seifert, a CFRA analyst covering BlackRock, told Yahoo Finance earlier this week.
BlackRock’s succession plans “need to be a little more buttoned up, particularly in light of some of the shifts going on at the firm,” Seifert said.
Fink and BlackRock outlined some ambitious goals for the firm over the next five years. By 2030, the firm aims to grow its revenue to over $35 billion and double both its operating income and market capitalization.
Its stock was slightly down as of Thursday early afternoon. It’s up 29% for the past 12 months.
“We know you’re looking to see if we could execute,” Fink told investors in reference to the new acquisitions.
“I believe it’s very achievable,” he added.
David Hollerith is a senior reporter for Yahoo Finance covering banking, crypto, and other areas in finance.
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Finance
Arra Finance To Acquire Crescent Auto Finance, Rapidly Scaling Its Subprime Auto Finance Platform
Deal to quadruple auto finance origination capacity and reduce credit application response time to a matter of seconds
IRVING, Texas, June 11, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Arra Finance, LLC (“Arra” or the “Company”), a subprime indirect auto finance company, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the auto financing division of Crescent Bank (“Crescent”), a New Orleans-based FDIC insured bank with approximately $1 billion in assets that has provided nationwide indirect auto lending since 1991. The deal accelerates the rapid expansion of Arra’s platform, enhancing its technology stack and analytics capacity well ahead of growth expectations. Crescent will retain its branch and online retail banking platforms, as well as its commercial lending program, and Arra will become the servicer for Crescent’s $815 million originated auto loan portfolio. The transaction is expected to close in 3Q 2025. Financial terms were not disclosed.
As a well-established operator in the subprime auto financing space, Crescent has originated upwards of $5.3 billion in auto loans nationwide over its 30-year history and $652 million in the last two years. This acquisition brings Crescent’s e-contracting, internal loan servicing and accelerated auto-decision capabilities to the Arra platform, alongside advanced analytics and additional fraud protection tools in underwriting and funding.
With financial backing from Obra Capital (“Obra”), Arra now has the operational bandwidth and capital structure necessary to provide a comprehensive suite of financing solutions to auto dealers across the country. Arra expects to rapidly scale delivery of customer financing solutions to dealers by leveraging Crescent’s existing operations, with a significantly increased auto finance origination capacity, larger dealer base and the ability to respond to credit applications within seconds of submission.
As part of the acquisition, Arra will welcome approximately 180 new employees from Crescent, expanding Arra’s best-in-class team by a factor of six. This includes 24 new sales team members, who will support the deployment of Arra’s capital base and provide a consistent touchpoint for new and existing dealer customers alike. The new additions will continue to be primarily based in Carrollton, Texas, supporting a seamless operational integration while opening new pathways for opportunity, as enabled by Arra’s access to asset-backed financing solutions.
“With today’s announcement, we have rapidly advanced Arra’s growth trajectory, substantially improving our ability to be the premier financing partner for franchise and select independent dealers,” said Kenn Wardle, Chief Executive Officer of Arra Finance. “After only six months in market, we are on track to outpace our growth targets by a number of years, and we have developed the platform capabilities necessary to deliver responses to credit applications in a matter of seconds. I look forward to welcoming our new team members as we bring our combined offerings to market and continue to streamline the car buying experience for dealers and consumers across the country.”
00:00:06 Speaker A
All right. Time now for to watch Wednesday, June 11th. We’ll start off on the earnings front here. We’re going to be getting some big names tomorrow. That will include Oracle, Chewy, and Victoria’s Secret. Oracle, by the way, announced some results for the fourth quarter after the market close. And it was expecting Oracle’s cloud unit to grow faster than expected, possibly more than 54% this quarter based on results from other names in the space, such as Microsoft and Google.
00:00:38 Speaker B
And taking a look at the economy, we’ll get fresh inflation data coming out in the morning with the Consumer Price Index, that’s CPI. Economists forecast total CPI will hold steady at 0.2%, while core CPI could tick up to 0.3% on a month over month basis. On a year over year basis, total and core CPI expected to rise to 2.5 and 2.8%, respectively.
00:01:08 Speaker A
And moving over to housing, weekly mortgage rate application data, that’s coming out in the morning. Last week’s number, decreasing 3.9% from the week prior, marking the third consecutive week of declines.
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