Cleary Gull Advisors Inc. has acquired Brookfield registered investment advisory firm Alberts Investment Management from Ronald Alberts. The transaction closed Oct. 1 for an undisclosed price.
Alberts, which has more than $300 million in assets under management, focuses on individual and government investments, both balanced and fixed income. Ronald Alberts will join Cleary as senior vice president-wealth advisor and will work with Brian Andrew, chief investment officer at Cleary Gull parent company Johnson Financial Group, to integrate the businesses.
Alberts had four full-time employees, two of whom are joining Cleary Gull at its 22,000-square-foot office in downtown Milwaukee. The Alberts office at 16655 W. Bluemound Road in Brookfield will be closed.
Milwaukee-based Cleary Gull was acquired by Racine-based Johnson Financial Group in June 2016. With that combination and this new acquisition, Johnson has doubled its assets under administration in the past five years to more than $10 billion. The division has about 50 employees.
And Michael Cleary says he plans to continue to grow the business.
“We’re going to continue to try to take market share,” he said. “We’re certainly open to continuing to have conversations (about acquiring other firms). Our goal is not to be $10 billion. Our goal is to be much larger than that.”
Part of the reason Cleary Gull has grown so quickly is because of the booming stock market over the past six or seven years, Cleary said.
“Asset values have grown dramatically since the Great Recession, particularly equity values for stocks,” he said.
Ronald Alberts praised the acquisition as good news for his clients.
“Not only does this allow our team to continue to grow, it also provides future succession for our clients for generations to come,” he said. “We wanted to join a company that shares our same vision and beliefs – a family that believes in reinvesting in the communities where they do business. Plus our clients receive a continuation of great service, along with access to the full breadth of financial services offered by Johnson Financial Group, including banking and insurance.”
