Joe Duran returning to the RIA game

Just as Goldman Sachs is looking to sell the remnants of United Capital Financial Partners, his old firm, Joe Duran is gingerly taking steps to reenter the registered investment advisor industry.

In fact, it's likely that Duran will launch a new enterprise in the near future, according to a spokesperson for the RIA innovator. In 2005, Duran opened United Capital, one of a handful of RIA aggregators, roll-ups and service platforms that served as templates for the RIA acquisition boom of the past decade.

The Duran spokesperson would not provide any more details about the executive's potential plans, except to add that he will share insights next month at the industry conference Future Proof. "He's not giving any details about what kind of firm it is right now," the spokesperson said.

United Capital sold to Goldman Sachs in 2019 for $750 million in cash. Goldman rebranded the business Personal Financial Management, an RIA with close to $29 billion in assets.

As of Monday morning, it's not clear who a potential buyer for Personal Financial Management could be, though several industry sources confidentially told InvestmentNews that large broker-dealers with connections to Goldman Sachs could be in the bidding. The giant bank said in February that Duran was stepping down as a partner at the firm.

Instead of focusing on the day-to-day business of financial advisors, Goldman will continue to work with them through its asset management and fund platform, as well as its burgeoning RIA custody business.

United Capital was a centralized platform that absorbed the RIA firms it purchased and renamed them, bringing them under one central brand and technology and investment platform.

In some part as a result of the success of Duran and a few others, the marketplace for RIA M&A networks is currently overrun with players — from brand-new entrants from outside the U.S. to well-established RIAs that suddenly decided to get into the RIA acquisition game.

Indeed, over the past 15 years, the RIA aggregator market has exploded, in large part the result of a flood of money from Wall Street, typically via private equity investors.