A summary of mergers and acquisitions in the North America wealth sector during July, August, September, October, November and December this year. Details may be subsequently adjusted.

Here is a list of corporate transactions, mainly mergers and acquisitions, in the North American wealth sector in the second half of 2024. The volume of deals highlights the level of vigor in the sector. Standouts include the decision of Toronto-listed CI Financial to go private in a deal with a Middle East-based suitor.
 

BlackRock
Asset management titan BlackRock agreed to buy alternative asset management data provider Preqin for £2.55 billion (about $3.2 billion) in cash. The deal combined Preqin’s data and research tools with Aladdin’s workflow capabilities in a unified platform.

EP Wealth Advisors 
EP Wealth Advisors, a US RIA, bought Sloan Investment Management, adding about $700 million in assets under management. Sloan is based in Dallas, Texas and led by managing partner Frank Sloan.
Modern Wealth Management

Modern Wealth Management acquired Tennessee-based C&J Wealth Advisors. The purchase took MWM to more than $4 billion in assets under management. Managing over $250 million in assets, C&J Wealth Advisors serves over 300 affluent clients in the Knoxville area.

RBC Wealth Advisors
RBC Wealth Management brought in a team based in Paramus, New Jersey, with about $640 million of client money. Prior to this, the Callot Wealth Management team worked at Merrill Lynch.
Financial Group of Irvine, California, with about $115 million in AuM, joined the platform of Prospera Financial Services. Prospera is based in Dallas, Texas. RBC Wealth Management in the US also brought in two teams with a combined $801 million in client assets. The Salon Magura 

Private Wealth Group 
Private Wealth Group, a Conshohocken, Pennsylvania-based practice, joined from US financial services firm Wells Fargo, bringing more than 90 years of combined experience, the firm said in a statement. The team is led by Rob Salon and Pari Hashemi Magura, managing directors, financial advisors and senior portfolio managers, with $455 million in client assets.

Bluespring 
Bluespring Wealth Partners, a US acquirer of wealth firms, bought Shelton Financial Group, a $500 million business run out of Fort Wayne, Indiana. The company’s investment business switched to Bluespring’s affiliated wealth management platform, Kestra Financial.

Crestline Investors
Private credit specialist Crestline Investors made a strategic investment in Indiana-headquartered Credent Wealth Management, a $2.6 billion RIA.

KKR
KKR acquired Janney Montgomery Scott from The Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company. JMS, which provides wealth and asset management, and investment banking, has over $150 billion in assets under administration.

Robertson Stephens WM
Robertson Stephens Wealth Management added a business in Colorado: Ratio Wealth Group, an SEC-registered investment advisor managing over $530 million in advisory assets. 
It also bought greater Chicago area business CAFG Private Wealth. The acquired RIA manages more than $240 million in assets.

Bluespring Wealth Partners 
Bluespring Wealth Partners bought Pennsylvania-based Rodgers & Associates Wealth Advisers, a firm overseeing more than $1.35 billion in client assets. Rodgers & Associates was founded more than 25 years ago.

Cetera 
Cetera Financial Group said California Coast Credit Union partnered with Cetera Financial Institutions, a community within Cetera Investment Services, to help manage and deliver its investment program. Cetera also entered into a definitive agreement to acquire, via asset acquisition, Concourse Financial Group Securities. The RIA and broker-dealer business, based in Birmingham, Alabama, is a subsidiary of Protective Life Corporation.

JTC
JTC completed its acquisition of First Republic Trust Company of Delaware, after initially announcing the deal on April 22. 

JTC announced its proposed purchase of Citi Trust, the fiduciary and trust administration services business, from Citigroup. Citi Trust operates from the following trust jurisdictions: New York, Delaware, South Dakota, Jersey, Singapore, Switzerland and the Bahamas. The group services more than $70 billion in client assets, covering more than 2,000 ultra-high net worth client relationships.

Vistra 
Vistra, a global provider of business services to help organizations invest and grow efficiently, completed the acquisition of US-based Fund Administration and Transfer Agent business of Phoenix American Financial Services. This transaction did not include Phoenix American’s aviation services business.

Houlihand Lokey
New York-listed investment bank Houlihan Lokey agreed to buy insurance and wealth management advisory services' firm Waller Helms Advisors.

Scotiabank
Canada’s Scotiabank agreed to buy for $2.8 billion in cash about 14.9 per cent of New York-listed KeyCorp – which provides services including private banking and wealth management. Scotiabank bought the stake by issuing common shares at $17.17 per share. 

Summit
Summit Financial Holdings said the wealth management arm of Meeder Investment Management partnered with Summit Financial, in collaboration with Merchant Investment Management by way of a minority equity investment. Meeder Investment Management, an asset management company focused on working with public funds, was not a part of this transaction and remained an independently owned company.

Summit Financial also made a “strategic investment” into BFG Wealth and Canon Capital Wealth Management.

Janus Henderson
Janus Henderson agreed to acquire a majority stake in Victory Park Capital Advisors

Park Capital Advisors, a global private credit manager. The purchased business – founded in 2007 – has specialized in asset-backed lending since 2010. The acquisition consideration was a mix of cash and shares of Janus Henderson common stock. The firm said the deal would be neutral-to-accretive to earnings per share in 2025.

Rise Growth Partners
Rise Growth Partners took a “strategic minority stake” in Bleakley Financial Group, a firm servicing almost $10 billion in advisory assets as of June 30 this year. Earlier this year, Rise received a $250 million investment commitment from Charlesbank Capital Partners, the private capital firm, to support its move to invest in RIAs.

EisnerAmper
It brought in Los Angeles-area CPA firm KROST into its embrace. Founded in 1939, KROST has eight partners and a staff of more than 100 professionals across offices in Los Angeles, Woodland Hills, and Pasadena, California.

The partners and colleagues of Los Angeles-area CPA firm KROST CPAs also joined EisnerAmper. Founded in 1939, KROST has eight partners and a staff of more than 100 professionals across offices in Los Angeles, Woodland Hills, and Pasadena, California. 

Cardea 
Atlanta headquartered Cardea Corporate Holdings, an emerging leader in global asset, wealth and investment management, acquired technology and financial assets from Nobel Sustainability Capital Group – a consortium of global investors led by Peter Nobel and Wu family members, rebranded as Fourcore Capital. In connection with the transaction, NSCG signed a binding agreement to contribute up to $25 million as an anchor investment in the company’s planned capital raise.

Mesirow
Mesirow, a Chicago-headquartered financial services firm, bought Price Wealth Management, an RIA firm based in Stuart, Florida. 

Ty J Young 
Ty J Young Wealth Management acquired Amatulli and Associates Financial Services, a firm based in Indiana. Founded in 1998, Ty J Young Wealth Management, manages more than $1 billion in assets.

Kestra 
Wealth management platform Kestra Financial onboarded SZC Financial Planning & Management, a firm founded in Maryland. SZC oversees more than $200 million in assets under management.

MAI
MAI Capital Management, an RIA, bought Bolan Capital Management. Bolan was founded in 2009 by Brian Bolan, and originally headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. The firm has expanded to cover markets such as those of Nashville, Tennessee. BCM had $238 million in client assets under management. 

MAI also bought Halpern Financial – another registered investment advisor. Halpern has offices in Ashburn, Virginia, Rockville, Maryland and a presence in Naples, Florida. It was founded in 1991 by Ted Halpern and has $1.2 billion in client assets under management as of September 30, 2024.

Beacon Pointe 
Beacon Pointe Advisors acquired Bridge Advisory, a firm with offices in Pasadena and Newport Beach, California, and Charleston Investment Advisors in Mt Pleasant, South Carolina. Bridge Advisory oversees about $460 million and Charleston Investment Advisors manages $140 million in client assets. 

Savant
Savant Wealth Management, the RIA, bought Kemp Financial Management, an RIA based in Fullerton, California, with about $255.2 million in assets under management, and BDK Financial Services of Brighton, Michigan, with about $52.4 million in AuM. 

It also  bought Sortino Advisory Partners, a Louisville, Kentucky-based RIA with $239 million in assets under management and $135.7 million in assets under advisement.
 
Mercer 
Denver-headquartered Mercer Advisors, the RIA, acquired Kiely Wealth Advisory Group of North Carolina. It also acquired Kades & Cheifetz, a Pennsylvania based RIA. Kades & Cheifetz is located in the suburbs of Philadelphia with additional coverage in Florida.

Prospera 
Prospera Financial Services added Tennesse firm Wunderlich & Company of Memphis to its platform. Led by Albert and Mackey Alexander, Brown Baine, Herb Taylor, and Philip Wunderlich, Wunderlich & Company oversees more than $650 million in assets under management.

BW Forsyth
BW Forsyth Partners took a strategic stake in US-based Matter Family Office, an organization with $3.4 billion in AuM. Matter Family Office is a private wealth management firm and multi-family office which was founded in 1990 by Kathy Lintz, who is also its managing member and partner.

Hightower 
Chicago-headquartered wealth management group Hightower Holding, parent of Hightower Advisors, bought a majority stake in investment consultant and outsourced chief investment officer business NEPC. Hightower said its combination with NEPC represents $258 billion in assets under management. NEPC is an investment consultant, private wealth advisor, and OCIO provider serving more than 400 retainer clients and more than $1.66 trillion in total assets.

The firm also made a strategic investment in Financial Planning and Information Services, Inc (FPIS), a wealth management and financial planning team in De Pere, Wisconsin, with more than $1.1 billion in assets under management.

Lido Advisors
Los Angeles-based Lido Advisors, a wealth advisor, acquired Pegasus Partners, an RIA operating in Mequon, Wisconsin. It also partnered with Platte River Wealth Advisors, a firm based in Louisville, Colorado. Platte River, which has more than $600 million in AuM as of October 30, 2024, offers tailored financial strategies and solutions.

Lido merged in Avitas Wealth Management, a firm based in Los Angeles. Avitas has more than $1.1 billion in RAuM as of September 30, 2024.

Modern Wealth 
Modern Wealth Management, an RIA, bought Boise, Idaho-based Petso Financial Consultants, an advisory firm with about $1.4 billion in assets under management, for an undisclosed sum.

Lovell Minnick 
Private equity house Lovell Minnick Partners made a strategic investment into Texas-headquartered Americana Partners, a wealth manager overseeing more than $8.5 billion in AuM.

Aspen Standard Wealth
Aspen Standard Wealth acquired Summitry, an RIA with $2.8 billion in assets under management, a firm based in the San Francisco Bay area and founded in 2003.

Mercer 
Mercer added $1.675 billion in client assets through two new acquisitions in October. It acquired Minneapolis-based Waypoint Capital Advisors, an investment advisory and financial planning firm, as well as Chapel & Collins, an RIA based in Fort Collins, Colorado.

The firm also acquired all-female business Frango Financial, which serves working professionals primarily in Washington, DC, Virginia, Maryland, and South Carolina. In this latest deal, Mercer bought a business with about $110 million in client assets. Frango, founded in 2011, consists of the two-person team of president and founder Frances Goldman, and advisor Pamela Postma Khinda.

Stonepeak
Stonepeak, an infrastructure investment house headquartered in New York, agreed to buy Boundary Street Capital, a private credit investment manager. Stonepeak has about $70 billion of AuM. Besides its New York HQ, it has offices in Houston, London, Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo, and Abu Dhabi. 

Wavely Advisors 
Waverly Advisors, an RIA, bought Dayton, Ohio-headquartered Buckingham Advisors.

Steward Partners 
Steward Partners, an employee-owned financial services firm specializing in wealth management, continued its Florida expansion with the opening of its first Palm Beach Gardens office and formation of G2G Wealth Management. G2G WM was born from the addition of two new financial advisors and $175 million in assets under management from the firm’s previously established Miller Family Wealth branch.

Osaic
Osaic, a US wealth management platform, added Buffalo, New York-based firm Nova Wealth, which has $180 million in client assets under administration.

MAG
MAG Wealth Management acquired Ovation Wealth Advisors and rebranded it under the Carson Wealth name, a deal that includes Carson Group taking a 30 per cent equity stake. The newly-formed Carson Wealth location oversees $350 million in assets under management.

CI Financial 
Canada-listed CI Financial was taken private in a C$4.7 billion deal with Abu Dhabi-based Mubadala Capital giving the group a C$12.1 billion enterprise value. CI continues to operate with its current structure and management team and will be independent of Mubadala Capital’s other portfolio businesses. (Mubadala Capital is the asset management arm of Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund.) Mubadala Capital bought CI’s issued and outstanding shares in cash for C$32 per share, a 33 per cent premium to the closing price prior to the announcement of the deal.

Kestra 
Kestra Private Wealth Services, an RIA, added Ohio-based Arc Private Wealth to its platform. The Arc team oversees more than $400 million in client assets.

Copia
Copia Wealth Studios, a platform providing insights on over $30 billion in assets, bought Kinship, a relationship management app for wealth managers. Kinship's relationship platform will be integrated into Copia in early 2025.

ZEDRA
ZEDRA joined forces with Gryphon, an Ohio-headquartered fund administrator, providing accounting, administration, and tax preparation and advisory services to the private fund ecosystem.

Hightower 
Hightower Advisors made a “strategic investment” in Dechtman Wealth Management, a financial planning and wealth management practice with $800 million in assets, located in the Denver area.

Savant
Savant Wealth Management acquired woman-owned Source Financial Advisors, a New York-based boutique RIA with $536 million in assets under management.

WhiteRock
WhiteRock Wealth Management, a family-owned RIA managing $263 million in assets under management, was sold to Beacon Pointe Advisors. Beacon Pointe has more than $36 billion in assets under management. WhiteRock Wealth Management, located in Dallas, specializes in financial planning including tax and estate planning, retirement savings, estate preparation, and broader spending guidance.

Ocorian
Ocorian, a global provider of fund and corporate administration services, regulatory solutions to financial institutions, asset managers, corporates and high net-worth individuals, acquired US based fund administrator, EdgePoint Fund Services.

Orion
Orion, a provider of wealthtech solutions for financial advisors and others, agreed to acquire Summit Wealth Systems, an advisor technology provider.