The RIA space marked its second day of deal momentum for March, led by significant partnerships for Savant Wealth and Aspen Standard alongside an acquisition extending Choreo's presence in the West Coast.
Savant Wealth Management has partnered with Heritage Financial, a Massachusetts-based wealth manager with $3.9 billion in assets under management and offices in Westwood, Woburn and Rockland.
"As we celebrate 40 years in business, it’s especially meaningful to mark this milestone with our largest partnership to date," Savant founder and CEO Brent Brodeski said in a statement Tuesday.
The transaction expands Savant's Massachusetts footprint to four locations, alongside its existing office in Wellesley.
It also brings together two majority employee-owned firms, a structure that remains relatively rare in a market increasingly defined by private equity-backed consolidators.
Out of Heritage’s 47 employees, 15 have joined Savant as member-owners, including founder and chairman Charles Bean III and president and CEO Sammy Azzouz.
Bean, who founded Heritage in 1995, said the move expands his firm's capabilities to areas such as tax and estate planning, and family office services, giving Heritage clients access to more specialized capabilities without changing their advisory relationships.
Counting Heritage, Savant now has 50 offices serving about $42.3 billion in AUM and $1.7 billion in AUA.
New York-based Aspen Standard Wealth has acquired BlueSky Wealth Advisors, a New Bern, North Carolina-based RIA with $1 billion in assets under management. The deal marks Aspen’s seventh RIA partnership since it launched in late 2024, continuing a push to assemble a network of independent firms under a long-term ownership model.
BlueSky, founded in 1999, offers investment management and comprehensive financial planning, with a focus on tax mitigation strategies, passive income, and legacy planning – all growing priority areas as more clients face concentrated stock positions, business sales, and complex multigenerational wealth transfers.
BlueSky CEO David Blain said the firm’s steady growth over the last quarter-century was driven by “highly personalized, holistic financial advice,” which his team is “excited to accelerate ... in partnership with Aspen.”
Rather than a roll-up built around short-term exits, Aspen positions itself as a permanent home for RIAs, with a focus on preserving partner firms’ brands and leadership teams while supplying capital, infrastructure and shared services.
“David and his team share our belief that great advisory firms are built for the long term," Aspen CEO Aly Kassim-Lakha said.
Beyond BlueSky, Aspen has acquired six other RIAs since late 2024, starting with Summitry in San Francisco and most recently including MG Financial in Boston.
Choreo, which serves more than 7,000 clients with around $27.2 billion in assets under management and advisement as of December 2024, is expanding its West Coast reach with the acquisition of the assets of Insight Wealth Strategies.
The deal for the Irvine, California-based RIA with about $110 million in AUM adds deeper CPA-oriented planning capabilities for Choreo's core clientele of business owners and entrepreneurs.
Insight is led by managing partner Dean McCormick, who brings more than 40 years of financial and accounting experience, alongside wealth manager Tony Luppi. McCormick began his career at Ernst & Young and later served as chief financial officer at two companies that ultimately merged with publicly traded firms.
Choreo CEO Jason Van de Loo said the firm is “built for business builders navigating the complexity of growing, owning and eventually transitioning a closely held business,” pointing to concentrated business risk, liquidity constraints, and advanced tax planning as common challenges.
The Insight transaction follows Choreo’s recent double-deal for Northeast Financial Group and Herbein Financial Group, two Pennsylvania-based RIAs with about $1.3 billion in combined client assets.
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