McAdams Wright Ragen Inc., a prominent Seattle-based financial services company that opened a branch office in Spokane two years ago, says it has signed a definitive agreement to merge with Baird, an international employee-owned conglomerate with more than $100 billion in client assets.

The two companies issued a joint announcement about the merger earlier this month. Terms of the transaction, which is subject to regulatory approvals, weren’t disclosed.

Scott McAdams, the Seattle-based brokerage’s president and CEO, chatted with a Journal reporter last week while visiting the office in Spokane and said the transaction is expected to close on June 30, and accounts are expected to transfer to Baird in October.

“That’s the end of an era,” McAdams says.

“Financially, it was really an acquisition,” he says, noting that the McAdams Wright Ragen business name will be discontinued and his executive role will change or cease.

“I have employment through June of next year, and then we’re just going to see what happens,” McAdams says. He hinted, though, that he’s transitioning toward retirement and looking forward to spending more time in other pursuits.

“I feel like I got this out of my system,” he says.

McAdams says Baird, whose current presence in the Pacific Northwest consists only of a small office in Portland, hasn’t acquired another firm since 1999, “so this is really out of character for them.” He adds that he feels “very positive about it” because of Baird’s resources and the similar philosophies the two companies.

McAdams Wright Ragen currently employs a total of about 180 people at seven Northwest offices, including nine brokers and three support staff members at its offices here, which are located on the 19th floor of the Bank of American Financial Center, at 601 W. Riverside. Overall, its workforce includes more than 85 financial advisers who manage more than $10 billion in assets.

The company offers investment advisory, brokerage, equity research, bond and equity trading, asset management, institutional sales, and investment banking services through branch offices in Bellevue, Yakima, Anacortes, and Mount Vernon, Wash., and in Portland, Ore., in addition to the office here and its main office in Seattle.

McAdams said the Seattle office probably “will get hit a bit” in terms of staffing as a result of the merger, but that the Spokane office should be unaffected “and, if anything, will be a little enhanced by this.”

Tom Guthrie, senior vice president and branch manager for the office here, told the Journal in an interview about a year ago that he believed the Spokane office would grow to about 25 employees within the next two years, adding that he expected 15 of those employees would be brokers.

McAdams says he believes that with the merger, “Tom will now appeal to a wider range of advisers when he’s out recruiting.”

Guthrie says he, too, is enthused about the merger.

“Going forward with the platforms Bair has on the technology side, but still being privately owned, but stock-and-bond guys, that’s very unique to this market,” he says.

Baird is a global wealth-management, capital markets, private equity, and asset-management firm. Established in 1919, it now has more than 2,900 associates, including more than 725 financial advisers, working from more than 100 locations in the U.S., Europe, and Asia, says the press release announcing the merger. It said its Portland office, its lone branch currently in the Pacific Northwest, includes wealth management, public finance, and fixed-income institutional sales operations.

Paul E. Purcell, Baird’s board chairman and CEO, said it the press release, “McAdams Wright Ragen is a well-established and highly respected firm with a business model and client-focused culture that are very consistent with Baird’s approach.”

Purcell said, “We’ve known and respected the firm, which is led by Brooks Ragen, chairman, and Scott McAdams, president and CEO, for a number of years. Taking this important step enables MWR to enhance the services and capabilities it offers its clients, and positions Baird to expand our current footprint in the Pacific Northwest.” 

Scott McAdams said in the release, “Baird’s independent, employee-owned model and its deep expertise and capabilities, along with its commitment to being a great place to work and putting clients’ needs above all else, make our decision to join forces the best next step for our business and our clients.” 

Over the past five years, Baird says, it has opened 31 new business locations in the U.S. and abroad and increased employment 22 percent while employment in the U.S. securities industry has decreased 2 percent. Additionally, the company says it has posted an operating profit for 136 consecutive quarters (34 years) and its stock value, including dividends, has grown nearly 220 percent since 2002. It says it had total revenue of more than $1 billion last year, its fourth consecutive year of record revenue.

Baird has been recognized as one of the “FORTUNE 100 Best Companies to Work For^®” for 11 consecutive years, breaking into the top 10 this year at No. 9.

It says also that its private wealth-management group has grown significantly in recent years. For instance, since the beginning of 2009 it has added more than 325 financial advisers and branch managers, the vast majority of whom are industry veterans.

Baird also has opened wealth-management offices in cities such as Portland, Maine; Charlotte, Raleigh, and Winston-Salem, N.C.; Charleston, S.C.; Sarasota, Fla.; Sioux City, Iowa; Houston and Fort Worth, Texas; Denver; Salt Lake City; San Francisco; and Portland, Ore.

McAdams Wright Ragen was founded after a wave of consolidation in the late 1990s left few independent, regional financial services firms in the Northwest. Brooks Ragen and Scott McAdams set out to recreate the classic, partnership-like investment firm that had worked so well before, consisting of traditional divisions in trading, retail, research, institutional, and corporate finance, but with strategic modifications to remain current and competitive.

The firm opened its doors with eight people in 1999 and has grown steadily since. For instance, in 2010, MWR expanded considerably, increasing headcount by about 50 percent, and opening branches in Mount Vernon, Wash., in late 2010 and Anacortes, Wash., in January 2011. In May 2012, MWR opened its seventh office, in Spokane. Like Baird, MWR has been consistently profitable, achieving record revenue each year it has been in business. In 2013, it had revenues of $48 million.

It serves individuals and their families, public and private companies, nonprofit organizations, and institutional investors.

In the press release, Brooks Adams said, “McAdams Wright Ragen and Baird are remarkably similar in very important ways. With our reputation and capital on the line every day, we manage conservatively and are extraordinarily focused on how well we perform for our clients and on how we best serve them. Both organizations also have very strong traditions of giving back to our communities in a significant way.” 

McAdams Wright Ragen said it supports a variety of local causes including the arts, education, social services, and community development, and its employees are active members in the philanthropic sector. In addition, the firm manages accounts for more than 50 nonprofits in the region, totaling in excess of $250 million. 

Likewise, Baird said it has a longstanding tradition of giving back to the communities in which its associates live, both on a corporate and individual level. In 2013, Baird Foundation provided more than $2.9 million in support to charitable organizations.

It said it also administers a firmwide charitable gift matching program that provides a match for associates’ financial contributions to eligible nonprofit organizations. The “Baird Cares” program gives associates two additional paid days off each year to perform volunteer service. In 2013, it said, more than 1,250 Baird associates and family members in more than 55 office locations participated in Baird Gives Back Week, a firmwide initiative to promote volunteerism.

Baird’s principal operating subsidiaries are Robert W. Baird & Co. in the United States and Robert W. Baird Group Ltd. in Europe. Baird also has an operating subsidiary in Asia supporting Baird’s investment banking and private equity operations.

Scott McAdams says the merger is part of a larger industry trend toward consolidation, driven by economic and regulatory forces.