Wealthspire reshuffles as CEO touts new employee equity participation

Wealthspire has announced a restructuring as the RIA and its affiliates now span $580 billion in assets following its completed sale to Chicago-based private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners.

The reorganization establishes five business units under the Wealthspire parent brand — Wealthspire Advisors, Fiducient Advisors, Newport Private Wealth, Wealthspire Retirement Advisory (formerly a segment of NFP Retirement), and Ground Control Business Management. Wealthspire’s move follows several other recent rebrands from acquisitive RIAs backed by private equity, including Hightower Advisors, HB Wealth, and OnePoint BFG Wealth Partners.

“Now we have the opportunity to put those businesses front and center, as opposed to having their story be blocked by the overall narrative of our parent companies being insurance brokerage agents,” Wealthspire CEO Michael LaMena told InvestmentNews. “So I think rather than our story being lost in that arc of insurance brokerage, now we have the ability to highlight to the industry and our clients the full breadth of capabilities that we possess in the individual and institutional space.” 

Wealthspire formerly operated as part of NFP under ownership of the London-headquartered insurance giant Aon. Madison Dearborn announced in September it agreed to re-acquire Wealthspire and its affiliates for $2.7 billion from Aon, the insurance giant that trades on the NYSE. Madison Dearborn originally acquired NFP for about $1.3 billion in 2013, and subsequently sold NFP to Aon in late 2023 for about $13.4 billion.

“Madison Dearborn was a phenomenal partner to NFP for 11-plus years, and they had great conviction in that investment. We were a meaningful part of that overall business, probably 20% of it,” said LaMena.

“When Madison Dearborn and NFP sold to Aon, the fundamental thesis was that Aon was looking for NFP as a platform that would provide them scale in the middle market, insurance business space,” he said. “I think over time — NFP, Aon — all of us quickly recognized that was their priority, and we had this unbelievable portfolio of individual and institutional businesses that NFP had assembled over the last couple decades.”

Wealthspire was formed in 2019 when NFP brought together New York-based Sontag Advisory and Maryland-based Bronfman Rothschild to form a combined RIA of about $10 billion in assets. Sontag Advisory’s founder Howard Sontag remains listed as chairman at Wealthspire, while his son, Eric Sontag, is the firm’s president. 

LaMena explained to InvestmentNews how Wealthspire’s employees are now better positioned to take part in the firm’s equity since returning to private ownership after Aon’s sale to Madison Dearborn.

“I think to take these businesses independent and have meaningful opportunity for our existing employees to participate in that equity, and to have that currency as a way to align interest with future teams that join us either organically or in organically, is going to be very meaningful,” said LaMena. RIA investment bank DeVoe & Company has identified equity as a key factor for firms looking to retain employees and recruit top talent. 

“When we were part of NFP, we had access to private equity, but it was private equity in a parent company. We were a part of it, but it wasn't directly correlated to what we did,” he said. “When we became part of Aon, it was a very different dynamic with Aon being a publicly traded company. We didn't have access to private equity, we didn't have access to that expressed through the business that we were building.”