Acquisitive US fiduciary financial planning group, Focus Financial, forged partnerships with five practices comprising an aggregate of $8 billion in client assets. The practices, based in four states including Massachusetts, Washington DC, California and Pennsylvania, take the number of partner firms in the network to 14. The firms include GW & Wade and Dion Money Management, both of Massachusetts; Lara, Shull & May, of Washington, D.C.; Benefit Funding Services Group of California; and JFS Wealth Advisors of Pennsylvania. Rudy Adolf, Focus’ founder and chief executive, recently told WealthBriefing he is looking to expand into the UK and Continental Europe by buying into advisory firms. In the US, Focus has an equity stake in advisory firms with $25 billion in client assets. The Focus model involves taking an equity stake in Registered Investment Advisory businesses with the intention of eventual ownership while allowing entrepreneurial business principals to maintain their independence while benefiting from the synergies and scale of a larger group. It claims to be the only fiduciary wealth management firm with a true national scale in the US with a presence in 41 states. The company has grown quickly with the backing of $9 Billion Private Equity Firm Summit Partners, which it struck a financing deal with in February last year worth $35 million of equity to invest for growth.