Carson Group announced that it has extended its footprint further in the West Coast on Thursday, marking the latest move in what has become one of the busiest acquisition campaigns in the registered investment advisor industry this year.
The latest deal to acquire Pinnacle Wealth Management, a Roseville, California, advisory practice, brings managing partners Jack Zboralske and Kenyon Lederer, along with wealth advisor Chase Lederer and two support staff members, into the Carson Wealth brand.
The team, which oversees approximately $236 million in advisory and brokerage assets, will close their independent office and move into Carson's existing Roseville location, strengthening the firm's presence in Northern California. Their client base is concentrated in retirement, telecommunications and healthcare planning.
Carson Group chief executive Burt White said the acquisition reflects the firm's effort to combine an established local practice with a national platform.
"By bringing their team into Carson Wealth, we're combining the strengths of their practice with the scale, resources and planning capabilities of our platform, creating even more opportunities for clients and future growth," White said, pointing to the firm's "[intentionally] flexible model that gives advisors choice, with pathways designed to support firms at every stage of their evolution."
Zboralske said the decision came down to fit as much as resources, pointing to the "quality of [Carson's] people, its culture and its commitment to helping advisors build enduring businesses.
Lederer also cited the firm's infrastructure, which includes "planning resources, technology and specialized expertise [that] will help us provide even greater value to clients while maintaining the personalized relationships that have been the foundation of our firm."
The Pinnacle deal lands just two days after Carson completed its acquisition of a Northern Kentucky advisory office overseeing roughly $201 million in assets.
Together, the two deals reflect a playbook Carson has followed throughout 2026: converting longtime independent partner offices into fully integrated Carson Wealth locations, following a similar run of activity in Colorado, Utah and Arizona this spring.
Carson now manages more than $60 billion in assets across a network exceeding 165 partner offices, including 48 fully owned Carson Wealth locations, serving upward of 60,000 client families.
The firm's prolific dealmaking has been consistent with broader industry momentum: according to Echelon Partners' first-quarter 2026 RIA M&A Deal Report, Carson Wealth ranked among the industry's most active acquirers in the period – ahead of Beacon Pointe and Cerity Partners – announcing eight deals and roughly $2.7 billion in acquired assets.
Read more: RIA M&A hits new quarterly record in Q1 2026, with $1.67 trillion in deals: Echelon report
Echelon's report also found that RIAs accounted for 106 of the 142 total transactions announced industrywide in the first quarter – a new quarterly record – as buyers increasingly prioritize integrated service platforms over simple asset accumulation.
The broader appetite for scale has also shown up in a steady cadence of similar deals across the wealth management sector this year, with firms of every size pursuing tuck-ins, full-office conversions and platform partnerships at a pace that, if it holds, would make 2026 the most active year on record for RIA M&A.
As of now, Carson is on track to outpace its 2025 run of 15 deals transacted based on Echelon's tracking. At least part of that frenzied pace might be explained by the trend of recapitalizations among large acquirers backed by private equity, with Carson itself having received PE backing from Bain Capital in 2021.
"The average holding period for a private equity investor in the finance and insurance services industry is 5.75 years, and some of these firms’ partners are likely considering transactions in 2026," Echelon noted in its 2025 RIA M&A Deal Report.
(Update: This article has been adjusted to reflect the correct number of existing Carson Wealth offices, clarify the reported number of deals transacted last year, as well as specify the Pinnacle Wealth team's relocation into the Roseville, California office.)
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