In 2018, 29 new firms have joined Carson Group as partners, twelve of which occurred between July and September. The positive response to the firm's equity swap model, where advisors have the option to rebrand as a Carson Wealth office for a percentage of equity, has continued this growth. Maryland-headquartered Cornerstone Wealth Management Group, led by long-time partner Scott Ford, is the latest firm to participate in Carson Group's model. Cornerstone manages $775 million in assets under advisement.
"Our decision to become a Carson Wealth firm made sense from multiple perspectives," said Mr. Ford. "For one, this partnership allows me to do an even better job to be the most trusted for financial advice. It gives our team scale to be able to keep up with regulation pressure, back-office costs, and provide an incredible experience for our clients, who are demanding more for less. Carson is a technology company that happens to be in wealth management, and I would never have been able to provide the value I do today without this partnership." Q3 2018 also saw the addition of 89 new advisors to Carson Group's coaching and content platform, which now includes more than 1,282 member firms serving approximately 600,000 client households across the U.S. and Canada. To support the growing needs of advisors, the organization recently acquired financial marketing and tech firm, Mineral Interactive, and appointed Mineral's CEO Jud Mackrill as Carson Group's chief marketing officer.
Carson Group also hired 23 new stakeholders since July in operations, compliance, business development, M&A, marketing, and wealth planning. Two notable additions for Carson Wealth include Joanna Swanson, vice president of advisor development, and Erin Wood, vice president of wealth planning. Swanson brings more than a decade of experience in financial services and will work closely with advisors to help facilitate their development and drive engagement, as well as provide support and guidance to Carson Group's partner offices in developing their advisors. Wood is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ who brings more than fifteen years of industry experience to lead the wealth enhancement group, a team that specializes in providing planning-based services both to partner firms looking to better serve their clients and to Carson Wealth's current clients.
Fostering next-gen talent was also a notable initiative for Carson Group the past quarter as it introduced a six month rotational internship program to help educate and inspire students on the opportunity that exists in financial services through a strategic relationship with Barron's and Creighton University's Heider College of Business."We're making strategic moves in every corner of the organization right now," said Ron Carson, CEO and founder of Carson Group. "If you look at all of them collectively – whether it be acquisitions, human capital, or new partnerships – they're all being made with one goal in mind: to improve the lives of our advisors and the clients they serve. That's the most exciting part of our growth in 2018."