A new record offers a more complete picture of the companies that have taken out forgivable Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans for coronavirus relief.
After months of litigation, the Small Business Administration (SBA) released its record on Tuesday evening for every company that received a PPP loan. The agency also shared the loan amounts taken out by each recipient.
In July, the SBA released the names of every borrower who had received more than $ 150,000, which revealed the identities of many of the major RIAs that had accessed the funds. Some had already announced in their updates to the ADV Form that they had taken out the loans; others didn’t.
The original SBA record had 1,436 investment advisors reported as loan recipients as determined by their North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code.
The newly published data set lists 3,053 companies that only have “Wealth Management” in their names. Even one typo, “Wealth Management,” produced 43 companies, and an abbreviated version, “Wealth mgmt,” produced 16 companies.
Since the program was launched in April, numerous RIAs that have drawn on PPP funds have either not responded to requests for comment or declined to comment on why they took out the loan and whether they will ask for forgiveness.
Carson Group Holdings, the parent company of Ron Carson’s RIA, valued at $ 12 billion, raised $ 4.06 million as of April 3. The Omaha firm had not previously disclosed the amount it had borrowed.
In May, a Carson Group spokesman told Citywire that the company had taken out the loan to protect its event and practice management coaching staff. Restrictions on large gatherings caused by the outbreak forced the Carson Group to cancel its flagship Carson Excell conference, which was due to be held in Las Vegas in late May.
The Sanctuary Wealth Group took out a $ 1.79 million loan on April 7, the data showed. In November, the Breakaway advisory network announced that it was selling a 55% stake in Italian wealth and asset manager Azimut for $ 50 million.
Steward Partners Global Advisory raised $ 5 million on April 10, data showed. The hybrid advisory firm affiliated with Raymond James is supported by private equity firm The Cynosure Group, which invested in the company in 2019. Steward has approximately $ 7.3 billion in RIA assets under management.
RIA Savant Capital, another Cynosure-backed company, $ 7.9 billion largest acquisition with Huber Financial Advisors, which was largely equity-funded.
Matson Money, Mark Matson’s $ 8.8 billion RIA and Turnkey Asset Management (Tamp) program, took out a $ 1.45 million loan on April 16.
The company was embroiled in a class action lawsuit in October against Chris Burns, the Atlanta financial advisor who went missing in September and was charged with defrauding customers of millions of dollars. Matson Money, named as a defendant in the class action lawsuit for his role as co-adviser to Burns, denies wrongdoing, saying Burns is unaffiliated with the firm.
Burns’ own RIA, Investus Financial, took out a $ 100,400 loan on April 10.
Several RIA-affiliated companies also took out PPP loans, including Riskalyze, which raised $ 2.67 million.
Impact Communications, a public relations firm for RIAs and other financial services companies, received a loan of $ 60,312.
Marie Swift, founder and CEO of Impact, argued in a comment for RIA Intel in July that companies were acting within their rights to apply for and receive PPP loans and that many borrowers were being “vilified” by the press.
“RIA Intel and other news publications asked if Impact Communications applied for and accepted a PPP loan,” Swift wrote at the time. “Whether or not we have applied for and accepted a PPP loan is nobody’s business except us. We are a privately held company and how we run our business is our business. For this reason, we have respectfully declined to reveal details of our private financial decisions. ‘
Swift declined to comment on Friday.
Citywire, which typically hosts over 100 face-to-face events per year, took out a $ 207,811 PPP loan on May 8th.
