ESL closes deal on first acquisition

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ESL Federal Credit Union has officially closed the deal on its first acquisition.

Victor’s Cooper/Haims Advisors is now set to work under the umbrella of ESL, while retaining its original branding and location off Square Drive. ESL officially announced plans to acquire Cooper/Haims in August, with the deal finalized at midnight Tuesday, Oct. 1.

For Faheem Masood, president and CEO of ESL, the deal was a major step for the company into a wider pool of financial offerings.

“This is clearly our first partnership acquisition, and especially in this space it’s really exciting,” Masood said. “Really, it’s driven by the market, what wealth management means to the marketplace. ESL is continuously trying to understand what the needs of the customer are, and as those needs continue to grow and evolve, we are evaluating that against our capabilities.”

Founded in 1981, Cooper/Haims is a 13-person wealth management firm primarily focused on high net worth clients, numbering at about 250. With the merging of Cooper/Haims into the ESL fold, the credit union’s wealth management department rises up to about $2 billion in assets under management.

“We’ve tried to build a service offering that touches everything financial that our clients have to deal with,” said Rich Bentley, managing partner at Cooper/Haims. “Not just investments, but income tax planning and preparation, cash flow planning, estate planning, retirement planning, executive compensation issues. Everything that touches that high-net worth investor, we try to facilitate all those needs for them.”

Talks on the acquisition of Cooper/Haims took about a year before the deal was finally set in stone. Bentley sees the opportunity of joining the ESL network as mutually beneficial—ESL receives a team with decades of experience and a dedicated client base, while Cooper/Haims receives a broader resource network.

“We’re very excited to be joining the ESL team,” Bentley said. “I personally think it’s a case of the sum being greater than the parts, I think it strengthens both organizations. As we learned more about ESL and how they focus on employees and members, it dove-tailed really perfectly with what we try to do.”

ESL is one of the largest financial organizations in the Rochester area, managing about $6.66 billion in assets across 364,479 members, according to the National Credit Union Association. Unlike ESL, most banks in the Rochester area are regulated under the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and as of the June 30, 2019, M&T Bank led the marketplace locally, with $3.76 billion in deposits as of June 30, 2019.

In the Rochester market, ESL looked at Cooper/Haims as an opportunity to better forge a competitive edge in a growing wealth management market.

“Before the introduction with Cooper/Haims, we sat down and looked at the competitive landscape, and Cooper/Haims was one of the organizations we looked at,” said Leo Iocabelli, senior vice president and director of ESL Wealth Management. “Given their reputation and standing within the community, we felt it was a good company to engage with and get to know more.”

While the first major acquisition in the history of ESL is a critical milestone, Masood said it’s not necessarily the start of a bigger push for picking up more companies. Rather, any move for future mergers will be calculated, done methodically and in response to reaching specific market needs.

“Based on the market needs, there are certain things we are looking to build out, if opportunity presents itself, we’ll certainly look at that,” Masood said. “If it fits with where the organization’s going, complements what we’re doing, we’d certainly be open to that. We do need to find that we’re providing something to whatever organization we’re merging with or acquiring, and that they are fitting with us as well. … I wouldn’t be surprised if more opportunities came forward, but it’s not like a race going on.”

For Cooper/Haims, it’s a step into a more ambitious future. As a smaller organization, access to ESL’s broad base of resources will give clearance for the firm to grow.

“The challenge we had was with all the things we were trying to do, the estate planning, the income taxes, regulations were changing at an increasing pace and speed,” Bentley said. “Being a little smaller organization, we didn’t have access to all of the resources I thought we needed to continue growing and best serve our clients, so becoming a part of the ESL team and family will really strengthen our abilities.”

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