Aspen Standard Wealth makes dealmaking debut with Summitry acquisition

There's a new player in the red-hot RIA M&A space, and it's bursting onto the scene with a sizeable West Coast acquisition.

Aspen Standard Wealth announced Monday Morning it has acquired Summitry, an RIA managing $2.8 billion in assets, marking its debut in the RIA space.

This acquisition brings together two firms focused on client-centered growth and long-term planning for financial advisory firms.

Summitry, founded in 2003 and based in the San Francisco Bay area, provides tailored financial planning and investment strategies, including retirement and estate planning, equity compensation advice, and other institutional-grade services. With a reputation for its client-focused approach, Summitry has become a prominent RIA in the region.

“When I met the team at Aspen, it was clear that they were different. They take a long-term view of everything they do,” Colin Higgins, CEO of Summitry, said in a statement announcing the deal. “They care about growing our people, continuing to build on top of the foundation that our team has built, and helping us deliver more for our clients.”

Higgins is a two-decade veteran of the wealth industry, with a 21-year record as an investment advisor, according to his IAPD profile.

Summitry's history is nearly as long, beginning its existence as an investment management firm operating under Charles Schwab in 2003. Over time, it has developed into a multibillion-dollar boutique offering comprehensive financial planning services – including retirement planning, estate and trust servies, and an expertise in equity compensation – with a focus on affluent clients whose income and wealth characteristics closely mirror the broader profile of the Bay Area.

"We have the deep roots here. We understand the dynamics of this unique ecosystem and we can be equally valuable in helping them take care of those needs," Higgins told InvestmentNews in a recent interview. "It's a people business. Stocks and bonds are the vehicle but the reality is it's all about human interaction and relationships."

Aspen Standard Wealth touts a unique approach in the RIA acquisition landscape, aiming to serve as a “permanent home and long-term partner” rather than eventually reselling acquired firms. The firm emphasizes alignment of interests and long-term stability, a model intended to support growth for partners without the friction and conflicts that often accompanies conventional M&A transactions.

“Summitry embodies everything we seek in a partner: growth oriented, client obsessed, and people focused,” said Aly Kassim-Lakha, CEO of Aspen, whose professional history includes a brief stint as a registered broker at Goldman Sachs. “Aspen offers what successful, leading RIAs like Summitry have long been looking for: a deeply knowledgeable, permanent partner who is there to support them indefinitely.”

Aspen operates through a decentralized model, providing resources to RIA leaders while preserving autonomy within partner firms, reflecting a broader mission to empower advisory firms for sustained growth.

The firm is majority-owned by Alpine Investors, a San Francisco-based private equity firm with a long-term approach to its portfolio investments. In an interview with Barron's, Kassim-Lakha emphasized that patient approach as a distinctive hallmark separating Aspen from other PE-backed acquirers, who are often under the gun to recapitalize with a partial sale every five to seven years.

When asked what his acquisition aspirations are in terms of the size of prospective partner firms, Kassim-Lakha cast a wide net, going from a minimum of $200 million to $10 billion in AUM. That upper limit, if achieved, would make it an outlier even in the current environment where the focus on billion-dollar deals has gotten increasingly steady over the years.