REWacker 250R. E. Wacker Associates has been purchased from Union Bank, N.A. by company founder Bob Wacker and the rest of the firm’s investment professionals: Bryan Krill, Matt Wilson, Patrick O’Hara, Mary Rose, Joan Wenglikowski, Ryan Caldwell and Alex Pock. The wealth-management firm has 13 employees and manages more than $650 million in assets on a fee-only basis.

Wacker founded the firm in 1988 and sold it in 2007 to Pacific Capital Bancorp, the bank holding company for Santa Barbara Bank & Trust, which wanted to strengthen its regional footprint in San Luis Obispo County. Pacific Capital was acquired in 2012 by Union Bank, N.A..

The transaction closed on October 23, 2013 for an undisclosed sum. The San Luis Obispo firm will be renamed R. E. Wacker Wealth Partners, LLC.

“Our whole team is pleased to be able to ensure the continuity of the firm we have built together over the past 25 years,’’ Wacker said. “This local ownership structure enables us to continue our distinctive client service, uninterrupted, for generations to come.

“We believe that we can better preserve and enhance services to our clients by continuing to operate independently rather than being integrated into Union Bank’s existing wealth management business,” Wacker said.

All of the advisor/owners are active in local non-profit organizations. Wacker is a former president of the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors and has been named one of the country’s top financial advisors by Worth, Mutual Funds and Medical Economics magazines. He is president of the Cuesta College Foundation, is a founding member of the Cal Poly Foundation Board of Directors and chairs its investment committee. He is a past chair of the San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce, and was named 2008 Citizen of the Year by the San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce in recognition of his civic and philanthropic leadership.