Verdence plans CTO hire, national push after largest acquisition

Maryland-based RIA Verdence Capital Advisors has completed its largest-ever acquisition in a move for fellow Maryland-based firm Harvest Investment Consultants, pushing Verdence to $5 billion in assets under management as it plots national expansion. 

Harvest manages $564 million for clients as its 10-person team led by Michael Meily joins Verdence, which was founded in 2017 by Leo Kelly after he left his role as managing director at Hightower. Harvest marks the second acquisition for Verdence since it sold majority ownership in April to Wealth Partners Capital Group and HGGC’s Aspire Holdings. 

“The strategy is to continue to build through the East Coast and then push west,” said Kelly. “If we find a great person on the West Coast and it fits, we'll go there because people trump location every time. Our plan is to create a significant East Coast presence and continue to push out west and be a national brand in five years.” 

Kelly remains CEO of Verdence, which offers multi-family office services and plans to soon hire its first chief technology officer. The firm is headquartered in Hunt Valley, Md., with additional locations in Alexandria, Va., Boston, Naples, Fla., and New York City.

“We are currently in the market to hire a new CTO. That person's going to come in, and build out our AI overlay,” said Kelly. “We're using AI in our investment team [and] in our marketing team. Our advisors, our associates are using Claude to develop processes to make their lives more efficient.” 

Wealth management data platform Milemarker is working with Verdence as part of its AI implementations, said Kelly. Verdence’s previous private equity backer, Emigrant Partners, held a minority stake since 2021 before exiting earlier this year as WPCG and Aspire Holdings invested in the RIA. 

Kelly said he anticipates Verdence will make “several” more acquisitions before the year is over, prioritizing targets based on their client-first culture with RIAs between $500 million to $1 billion AUM as its sweet spot. In addition to a CTO, Verdence plans to hire a new head of family office and a head of estate planning for its family office unit.  

“This is someone who can architect our AI infrastructure. Whether [we] build it ourselves or partner with someone,” Kelly said of the new CTO role. “Talent is critical in these acquisitions. So some of these hires will come through acquisition.” 

Kelly describes Wealth Partners Capital Group (WPCG) as a “growth accelerator” and HGGC’s Aspire Holdings as the capital resource provider to WPCG. The two firms have actively invested together in the RIA space, including past or current stakes in Waverly Advisors, True North Advisors, The Wealth Alliance, MCF Advisors, Merit Financial Advisors, and this year’s new minority investment in Crewe Advisors. 

“As we get bigger and we go into [2027], we're going to be looking to make larger and larger acquisitions,” said Kelly. “What we aren't is just a rollup. We are not an acquirer. We're an integrator, and so we're not out there buying EBITDA,” he added. “We want folks that fit our culture.”