In the past decade the separately managed wrap account has evolved from an experiment to an industry with a half-trillion dollars in assets. Now the person most widely credited with promoting the concept may soon have a big pile of cash to wrap for himself. Len Reinhart is reportedly close to selling his seven-year-old investment advisory firm, Lockwood Financial Group. Bank of New York is said to be the most likely buyer and is expected to pay as much as $150 million, according to a source familiar with the negotiations. (Morgan Stanley is also rumored to be in the hunt.) Based in Malvern, Pennsylvania, Lockwood provides high-net-worth individuals with investment consulting services as well as access to 50 institutional money managers who collectively run about $9 billion on behalf of the firm’s clients. Reinhart championed the revolutionary wrap account -- burnishing his reputation for financial innovation -- while president of Smith Barney’s consulting unit in the late 1980s and early ‘90s. The Lockwood CEO, who founded the firm in 1995, did not return calls for comment.
