Guggenheim acquires N.Y.-based celebrity manager

FWR Staff

6 November 2006

Financial- and life-management business founded and run by Barry Klarberg. Guggenheim Wealth Management has acquired Barry Klarberg's wealth business, a practice that specializes in providing financial- and life-management services to high-profile athletes and entertainers.

No one's revealing the financial terms of the deal, but the agreement calls for Klarberg's business -- which doesn't seem to have a name -- to continue advising its 600 or so clients while working off Guggenheim's much larger service platform. No name "Guggenheim has more than 175 professionals who assist wealthy clients with their investment, management and family office needs and we're thrilled to extend our talent and expertise to Barry's clientele," says Guggenheim Wealth Management's managing partner Andrew Rosenfeld.

Klarberg -- whose client roster has included members of the pop group Nsync and hockey player Mark Messier -- says he's "excited to partner with a wealth- and investment-management platform of such renowned talent, and be able to offer my clients their advice and attractive array of investment options."

Loring Ward, a Canadian-based but U.S.-focused wealth- and investment management firm, acquired Klarberg's firm Klarberg Raiola in the late 1990s and re-named it KRT Business Management. Early in 2004 Loring Ward selected KRT -- with Klarberg still on board -- as the New York component of its family-office business. In August this year Loring Ward sold KRT to "a company organized by Barry Klarberg" -- the seemingly nameless entity that Guggenheim just acquired. Prior to establishing Klarberg Raiola in 1992, Klarberg ran Deloitte & Touche's sports and entertainment practice. Klarberg is an accountant by training.

New York-based Guggenheim Wealth Management is part of Guggenheim Partners, an investment bank and investment manager with around $110 billion in high-net-worth and institutional assets. -FWR