The deal puts financial engineering on Garrison’s expanding service roster. Garrison Financial plans to buy Tahoe Advisers in a bid to add risk mitigation to its service offerings to family offices, investment boutiques and high-net-worth investors. That follows hard on Fayetteville, Ark.-based Garrison’s acquisition of Garner Asset Management, also based in Fayetteville.

Good impression

“Demand for non-conflicted, independent financial service providers is growing as investors become increasingly wary of institutions that may have potential conflicts,” says Tom Garrison, Garrison’s chairman and CEO. “Our acquisition of Tahoe Advisers brings a depth of market access and technology that will benefit wealth managers, particularly in terms of risk management and investment opportunities.”

Englewood Cliffs, N.J.-based Tahoe Advisers will become Garrison Capital Markets, a unit of Garrison Financial.

Steve Braverman, managing director of Tahoe Advisers and soon to be an executive v.p. with Garrison, says the deal stemmed from a routine presentation Tahoe made to Garrison executives a few months ago. “We walked in and made a proposal in the spirit of ‘You should be aware of our model,’ and that turned into them offering to acquire us.”

Sowing seeds

Braverman says the offer suited him and his partners because it came with assurances the business would be left to pursue its strategy of providing “best-of-breed outsourced expertise” on investment-risk mitigation while “creating a broader range of services” within the larger Garrison group.

Garrison saw in Tahoe an opportunity to add an important element to its service roster. “Tahoe’s derivatives skills and financial engineering capabilities allow us to offer a deeper range of services, and we’re excited about working with them to strengthen our strategy of delivering innovative and collaborative services to wealth managers,” says Garrison’s president Brian Vaughn.

And Braverman adds that the merger with Garrison gives the combined firm a chance to take sophisticated investment planning to parts of the country that aren’t served by major financial centers. “There’s a lot of underserved wealth out there,” he says. “It’s kind of like we’re Johnny Appleseed.” –FWR