Wealth Enhancement is extending its 2025 M&A run with the acquisition of L.M. Kohn & Company, a Cincinnati-based hybrid RIA.
The deal unveiled Tuesday, which adds more than $2.2 billion in client assets, pushes the Minneapolis firm’s total client assets to more than $131 billion and deepens its footprint across the Midwest and South.
L.M. Kohn, founded in 1990, works with individual investors and financial professionals on financial planning and small business benefits consulting. The 23-person firm, led by founder and chief executive officer Larry Kohn – whose BrokerCheck record with Finra stretches back 42 years – operates from its Cincinnati headquarters and five additional offices in Georgia, Iowa and Michigan.
“Larry Kohn has built a strong legacy of exceptional service and comprehensive wealth management for more than three decades,” Jeff Dekko, chief executive officer of Wealth Enhancement, said in a statement on Tuesday. “L.M. Kohn’s dedication to clients and community mirrors our own values.”
Kohn said the firm was built on the idea that clients should receive objective guidance rather than product-driven advice. “I founded L.M. Kohn & Company with the belief that clients deserve independent, thoughtful financial guidance built on trust,” he said, adding that joining Wealth Enhancement will give clients access to more tools and specialists while maintaining the firm’s personal relationships.
Wealth Enhancement framed the acquisition as part of a broader push to scale up its planning-led advice platform through deals with like-minded RIAs. “L.M. Kohn’s planning-first philosophy complements our strategic vision, making them a great addition to our firm,” said Jim Cahn, chief strategy officer of Wealth Enhancement, as he highlighted the opportunity to "[strengthen] our national presence across the Midwest and South.”
The L.M. Kohn transaction closed just days after Wealth Enhancement bought FPG Private Wealth, a hybrid RIA managing more than $532 million in client assets across offices in Carmel and Lafayette, Indiana.
Those back-to-back acquisitions follow Wealth Enhancement’s 100th deal last month, which saw it purchase Wise Wealth, a $464 million RIA based in Missouri.
The firm has been among the most active consolidators in the RIA space, logging 10 transactions and $6 billion in acquired assets last year, according to Echelon Partners' 2024 RIA M&A report. It already notched 10 deals year-to-date through the third quarter of this year, which according to Echelon's most recent quarterly deal snapshot put it neck-and-neck with fellow mega-RIA Mariner as well as Mercer Advisors.
Dekko has signaled that the firm’s ambitions go far beyond its current scale, telling Barron’s in September that he aims to build Wealth Enhancement into a $1 trillion RIA platform.
“It’s time for an economic reset,” wrote the California governor, in a post on X.
Masterworks was launched in 2017 but its RIA, Masterworks Advisers, is just three years old.
One 2017 form, no broker license, and a $42 million gap they say surfaced on a webinar.
Fewer than half of Americans in their peak earning years feel on track for retirement, while many say limited financial knowledge and access to professional guidance are holding them back.
Meanwhile, Wells Fargo hauled advisors overseeing $825 million in the West Coast, while Wedbush has welcomed a seasoned professional from Stifel in California.
Dan Biagini of American Equity says the steady decline of pensions, longer lifespans and a reset in interest rates are rewriting how advisors build retirement income
Direct indexing is on pace to outgrow ETFs and mutual funds. Northern Trust's Ken Lassner explains why the advisors who get it wish they had started sooner.
