Cerity Partners LLC (New York)

Name: Cerity Partners LLC
Address: 335 Madison Avenue, New York, NY, 10017
Telephone: 212-850-4260

Cerity Partners LLC is a large advisory firm based in New York. It manages $19.66 billion of regulatory assets for 2,822 client accounts. It has been registered with the SEC as an adviser since 2018 and has operated in the jurisdictions of Arizona, Arkansas, California, and 30 other states.

Cerity Partners provides financial planning services, portfolio management for individuals and small businesses, portfolio management for businesses and institutional clients, pension consulting services, selection of other advisers, and tax services; bill pay. It prepares financial plans for more than 499 clients. On top of advisory services, the firm doesn't engage in other business activities.

Cerity Partners: assets under management

The assets under management (AUM) of Cerity Partners LLC is $19.66 billion. The firm's AUM has grown by 164% since the beginning of its operation, and $95.65 million of the total AUM is attributable to clients outside of the United States.

The firm manages $7.71 billion in discretionary accounts and $11.95 billion in non-discretionary accounts. On average, the discretionary accounts where all decisions are made on behalf of the client hold $2.92 million each. Non-discretionary accounts, where clients actively manage their portfolios, generally hold around $66.75 million.

Cerity Partners has custody of $2.11 billion in cash and securities for 886 clients in total but doesn’t act as a qualified custodian.

Investments

The firm invests in investment and business development companies the most. They account for 68% of the total AUM. The second-largest asset type is exchange traded securities, which make up 16% of the firm’s portfolio. Investments in state and local bonds form 8% of the total invested assets.

Fees & Commissions

The advisory firm has several streams of revenue. Clients pay Cerity Partners LLC for their services and products based on a percentage of assets under management, hourly charges, fixed fees, and performance-based fees. Flat-fee based compensation is the most transparent and the one you can safely predict in advance. These fees don’t include brokerage commissions, interest, taxes, and other account expenses.

What kind of clients Kurt Patrick Miscinski serves?

The firm provides services to individuals, charitable organizations, high net worth individuals, corporations or other businesses, and pension and profit sharing plans. The largest group of clients of Kurt Patrick Miscinski is pension and profit sharing plans with 216 clients and $11.49 billion of assets under management. Among the 8 most similar advisory firms, Cerity Partners has the highest percentage of pension and profit sharing plans out of all clients.

The amount of regulatory assets under management is $19.64 billion for 2,821 clients that can include trusts, estates, and 401(k) plans and IRAs of individuals and their family members. None of the firm’s clients are foreign persons or businesses.

Cerity Partners doesn't advise any private funds.

Careers at Cerity Partners LLC

The company employs 164 people that are either part- or full-time employees. 53 percent of the employees work as investment advisers or researchers. 51 employees are registered as investment adviser representatives with the state securities authorities.

There are 15 people with the role of looking for and bringing in new clients on behalf of the firm. The firm doesn’t compensate employees in addition to the salary for bringing in new clients. Employees don’t receive compensation from other entities for client referrals.

Kurt Patrick Miscinski has been acting as President since 1 Dec 2009. Benjamin A Pace has served as the Chief Investment Officer since 1 Oct 2014. Brent Coles joined the executive team most recently as the Chief Financial Officer.

Direct owners and executive officers

Name	Entity	Date acquired	Ownership	Employer ID
Kurt Patrick Miscinski	President	1 Dec 2009	Other	2694200
Robert Joseph Seco	Chief legal officer/chief compliance officer	1 Oct 2010	Other	5637325
Lawrence Eric Sussman	Chief financial officer	1 Oct 2010	Other	2835591
Benjamin A Pace	Chief investment officer	1 Oct 2014	Other	5283727
Maria Alexandra Hodi	Chief administrative officer	1 Jan 2017	Other	4796907
Kevin Hilden	Chief operating officer	1 May 2018	Other	5037052
Cerity Partners Equity Holding Llc	Member	1 Sep 2018	75% - 100%	83-1643668
Brent Coles	Chief financial officer	1 Feb 2019	Other	7088226

Indirect Owners

The SEC currently registers 7 indirect owners.

Name	Entity	Date acquired	Ownership	Employer ID
Kurt Patrick Miscinski	Manager	1 Nov 2017	Other	2694200
L.P. Lightyear Fund Iv Aiv 1	Member	1 Dec 2017	75% - 100%	82-3538903
Llc Ly/Cp	Limited partner	1 Jan 2018	25% - 50%	82-3553633
L.P. Ly Iv Aiv 1 Holding	Member	1 Jan 2018	75% - 100%	82-3568336
2297984 Ontario Limited	Limited partner	1 Jan 2018	25% - 50%	98-1016734
Llc Cerity Partners Holdings	Member	1 Sep 2018	50% - 75%	82-3744081
Cerity Partners Eoe Llc	Member	1 Sep 2018	25% - 50%	82-3423803

Based in New York

The principal office where Cerity Partners LLC performs its advisory services is located at 335 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10017, which is also the mailing address of the firm. An additional office of the firm is in Bloomfield Hills, MI. It doesn’t run an office outside of the United States.

You can reach the main office by calling the phone number 212-850-4260 or by fax 212-937-1942. The normal business hours are 9am to 5 pm on Monday - Friday. You can find more information about the New York firm at linkedin.com/company/cerity-partners and its LinkedIn profile.