Financial Advisor IQ reported on October 22 that a $576 million advisor team has come to Osaic from what was Stifel's independent unit. Osaic announced the affiliation the same day in a Business Wire release. The $576 million figure measures client assets.
Freehold is headquartered in Landrum, South Carolina. According to the firm's announcement, it is led by President Cynthia Boyle, with John Boyle and Managing Partner Mary Steele, who is Boyle's daughter. The release says the firm has added professionals serving clients in Wisconsin, Michigan and North Carolina, and names advisors Shelley Strobel-Erhardt, James Thornton, Mark Bloomer, Michael Wiseman and Jerry Pyles as having joined later.
The release says Freehold first affiliated with Osaic in April 2026, with the other advisors joining afterward. The firm is described as estate- and trust-focused. Osaic President Shannon Reid said the firm fits Osaic's entrepreneurial model. According to the release, Freehold chose Osaic in part for access to asset management capabilities and research from Ladenburg Thalmann Asset Management, and for Osaic's succession-planning resources.
The seller, Stifel Independent Advisors, is the wealth unit that Equitable agreed to acquire, according to Stifel's investor relations materials, which say Equitable announced the deal on October 27, 2025. Those materials describe the unit as having more than 110 advisors managing about $9 billion in client assets, and say the deal excluded Stifel's employee channel. A disclosure brochure for the unit dated February 28, 2026 states that it has been acquired by Equitable Holdings. Stifel has not disclosed a purchase price. Financial Planning reported that Stifel recorded $55.7 million in other income tied to the sale in its first-quarter results, which reflects proceeds rather than a price.
According to Wikipedia, the firm's base is Scottsdale, Arizona, it once traded as Advisor Group, and Reverence Capital Partners counts it among its holdings. Jamie Price is CEO and Shannon Reid is president. FA Magazine reported that Osaic says it supports more than 10,000 financial professionals and has about $700 billion in assets under administration, a figure that measures administration rather than AUM. Osaic has said it has roughly tripled in size since 2019 and plans to grow through organic growth, recruiting and acquisitions, with a focus on the East Coast. A filing for Osaic Wealth, Inc., its registered adviser subsidiary, dated March 31, 2026 reports $234.9 billion in AUM.
InvestmentNews also reported on the Freehold move and noted that it followed other recent Osaic additions. Earlier this year, FA Magazine reported that Osaic recruited Eric Westall, an advisor managing more than $250 million who had spent 10 years at Stifel Independent Advisors, in May 2026. In February 2026, Osaic announced that two former Stifel advisors, Michael Murray and Brian Fruend, launched F & M Investment Partners in the St. Louis area, overseeing $232 million. AdvisorHub reported that KWM Wealth Advisory, a former Stifel Independent Advisors team managing over $1 billion, moved to Raymond James. Separately, Osaic announced on October 20 that ICG next, a New Jersey firm with about $2.3 billion, joined from LPL Financial.
The announcements do not describe additional deals or timelines beyond the Freehold affiliation. The move adds a family-run, estate-focused firm with multi-state client coverage to Osaic's network at a time when the firm is recruiting actively and has said it is expanding on the East Coast.