This edition of the Deals & Recruiting Roundup covers Emigrant’s deal with Novare Capital, Summit Financial adding Genex, Mercer’s acquisition of Financial Partners Group, EP Wealth acquiring Criterion Capital, Schneider Wealth joining Commonwealth, Future Capital partnering with Axos Clearing, AssetMark naming Alex Pape as Chief Technology and Product Officer, Mercer appointing Alisa Maute as Head of Client Development, Intention.ly expanding its RIA Group, Savvy Wealth appointing David Weiner as Chief Growth Officer and LPL onboarding Charter Oak Wealth Partners.
Larry’s Take
Though this is the Deals & Recruiting Roundup rather than the Wealthtech Roundup, several of the stories covered today involve technology: AssetMark added Alex Pape as its new Chief Technology and Product Officer. Savvy Wealth was founded by tech expert Ritik Maholtra as a “digital-first” firm. Custodian and clearing firm Axos, already highly tech-centric, partnered with tech platform provider Future Capital.
In fact, if you dig deep enough, every story we cover has technology somewhere in its roots, whether it’s M&A, recruiting, a strategic alliance or a newly appointed executive’s role. This is no coincidence when investment firms are pouring billions of dollars into industry-shifting technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning. The stakes couldn’t be higher, as Statista predicts the financial services industry’s investments in AI will rise from $35 billion in 2023 to $126.4 billion by 2028.
Technology has become integral to everything we do and advisors are taking heed, according to Orion’s latest surveys. This isn’t an obstacle to overcome – it’s wind in our sails, an opportunity to do more and serve better with less resources. Let’s welcome the opportunity and see how much our industry can achieve in the next few years.
If you would like to discuss Larry’s Take further, including how these trends might impact your business, please contact me at larry.roth@rlrstrategicpartners.com.
Mergers & Acquisitions
Emigrant Partners With Novare Capital
New York City-based Emigrant Partners announced an investment with Novare Capital Management. In the deal, Emigrant will provide financial capital and strategic advice to Novare and enable the company to explore opportunities for strategic expansion in the Southeast region.
Charlotte, North Carolina-based Novare is an independent wealth management business that manages $1.8 billion in assets. Novare was founded by Bill Baynard and Don Olmstead in 1999.
“We are thrilled to welcome Novare to the Emigrant Partners network,” said Jenny Souza, CEO and President of Emigrant Partners. “From our very first meeting, we were impressed with their depth of expertise, their growth in a vibrant wealth management market, and importantly, their highly strategic approach to managing intergenerational family wealth.”
Summit Financial Stakes Genex
Parsippany, New Jersey-based Summit Financial, in collaboration with capital provider Merchant Investment Management, is adding Genex Consulting to its network. The investment stake is Summit’s first investment of 2025. The company has $20 billion in assets under management (AUM) and generated 70% year-over-year growth in 2024.
Genex, led by principals Brian Redders, Michael Sluhan and Chad Hemphill, is a multi-family office in Kirkwood, Missouri with $700 million in AUM, specializing in in investment planning, retirement planning, executive compensation, risk management, estate planning and business consulting.
“Bringing Genex and its core team into the Summit Financial family reinforces our commitment to supporting entrepreneurial advisors with a model that prioritizes independence, growth and long-term success,” said Stan Gregor, CEO of Summit Financial Holdings. “Our partnership approach goes beyond investment solutions — it’s about providing a collaborative, multi-family office experience that helps firms like Genex elevate their client relationships and achieve lasting impact.”
Mercer Acquires Financial Partners Group
Denver-based Mercer Global Advisors is acquiring Financial Partners Group. The acquisition builds on Mercer’s presence in the Nashville, Tennessee, metro area, bringing its family office service offering to the area.
With $660 million in assets, Financial Partners was founded by Bo Bowling and Scott Paschal and has clients ranging from mass affluent to ultra-high net worth. With the deal, Financial Partners looks to benefit from a broader team of specialists in areas such as estate and tax planning.
“Bo and Scott have cultivated a highly respected practice, committed to delivering high-quality advice,” said Martine Lellis, Principal, M&A Partner Development at Mercer. “We believe deeply in their client-centric approach and focus on long-term success. Their values perfectly align with our own at Mercer Advisors. We look forward to supporting their continued growth and expanding the depth of services they can provide to their clients.”
EP Wealth Advisors Lands Criterion Capital
California-based EP Wealth Advisors is acquiring Criterion Capital Advisors, a 20-year-old investment firm based in Nashville. The deal is EP Wealth’s first partnership of 2025, its first office in Tennessee, and a continued expansion in the Southeast, adding over $500 million in AUM.
Founded in 2005, Criterion is led by Co-Founder Allan Horner, along with partners Mark Pierce and Scott Freeman. All three Co-Founders will remain in Nashville, leading Criterion’s ongoing mission to provide tailored financial planning, investment and tax planning to clients.
“At EP Wealth, our growth is fueled by partnering with entrepreneurs across the country who share our values and are looking to leverage additional resources to deliver outstanding experiences to their clients,” said Ryan Parker, EP Wealth CEO. “Criterion is the latest example of a firm built on personalized service that helps clients work toward achieving their long-term financial goals. Through our combined efforts, we are well positioned to serve even more families in the Southeast.”
Advisor Transactions
Schneider Wealth Joins Commonwealth Financial
Massachusetts-based Commonwealth Financial Network has added New York City-based Schneider Wealth Strategies to its network of independent advisors. Founded by David A. Schneider, Schneider Wealth advised on over $320 million in assets as of Sept. 11. The firm provides services for investment planning, retirement planning, executive compensation, risk management, estate planning and business consulting.
Privately held since 1979, Commonwealth partners with approximately 2,345 independent financial advisors who oversaw more than $344 billion in assets as of Dec. 31.
“David Schneider sought a long-term partner he could count on and true access to senior leadership to help him further develop his business, and we’re thrilled to welcome him and his team to Commonwealth,” said Becca Hajjar, Commonwealth’s Managing Principal and Chief Business Development Officer. “Like many in our community, David emphasizes simplicity—both in the client experience he offers and in his vision for operating his practice.”
LPL Brings Charter Oak Wealth Partners Aboard
California-based LPL Financial recruited Charter Oak Wealth Partners. It will join LPL’s broker-dealer, RIA and custodial platforms, aligned with existing firm Academy Financial. The Charter Oak advisory team manages $600 million in advisory, brokerage and retirement plan assets and joins LPL from Osaic.
Founded in 2016 by Gary Paul, Hartford County, Connecticut-based Charter Oak brings Paul to LPL as well as Private Wealth Planners Gary Salva and Chris Scuderi, Private Wealth Advisor Bill Matzinger and Client Relationship Manager Lori Tedone.
“We welcome the Charter Oak team to the LPL community,” said Scott Posner, LPL’s Executive Vice President, Business Development. “We are committed to delivering robust resources, business solutions and innovative capabilities that help our advisors differentiate their practice and succeed at every stage of their business’ lifecycle.”
Strategic Partnerships
Future Capital Partners With Axos Clearing
Chattanooga, Tennessee-based Future Capital is integrating with Axos Clearing, a subsidiary of Axos Financial. The alliance integrates Future Capital’s Core and Construct platforms into the Axos Professional Workstation, part of its Axos Complete ecosystem.
The integration enables Axos Clearing client firms to manage clients held-away retirement assets, build custom allocations with complete portfolio customization, determine their own fee structure, introduce these accounts to Future Capital for management, identify rollover opportunities and access household financial data.
“For financial advisors, managing held-away retirement assets has long been a critical gap in their service offering - one that directly impacts their ability to deliver comprehensive wealth management,” said Mike Row, Chief Revenue Officer of Future Capital. “Our integration with Axos Complete will address this challenge head-on, giving advisors the power to actively manage their clients’ retirement assets alongside their other investments.”
Promotions And People Moves
AssetMark Names Former BlackRock Exec As New Chief Technology And Product Officer
AssetMark is tapping Alex Pape as its new Chief Technology and Product Officer.
Pape most recently served as Global Head of Product for BlackRock’s Aladdin Wealth Tech Business. In his new role, Pape will oversee AssetMark’s technology productization program. He will report directly to Lou Maiuri, Chairman and Group CEO of AssetMark.
AssetMark’s platform serves over 10,700 financial advisors and more than 317,000 investor households. As of Dec. 31, it had over $139 billion in platform assets.
“This is a strategically important move as we continue to strengthen our leadership team to support AssetMark’s growth and innovation strategy,” said Maiuri. “To achieve our strategic goals, we are further strengthening our already strong IT leadership team. Alex’s experience and vision will be invaluable as we continue to scale and innovate, ensuring that our technology and product offerings remain best-in-class.”
Mercer Appoints Maute As New Client Development Head
Mercer Global Advisors has appointed Alisa Maute to the newly created role of Executive Managing Director, Head of Client Development. In her new role, Maute will lead and expand Mercer’s client development team of over 100 team members, which has doubled in size over the last two years. She will be responsible for coaching and developing the team, evolving each of the firm’s go-to-market channels and working with market leadership teams to develop growth strategies for their geographies.
Maute joins Mercer from LPL Financial, where she was an Executive Vice President and worked with hundreds of advisory firms, partnering with firms to drive their organic expansion. Before LPL, Maute spent over a decade at WisdomTree Asset Management in various roles. She served on the firm’s operating committee and held key positions, including Head of Strategic Partnerships and Head of U.S. Distribution.
“One of the things that truly sets Mercer Advisors apart is our commitment to investing in dedicated client development teams in every one of our markets. It is a big part of how we deliver on our fiduciary promise to clients, while creating the context for advisors to do their best work,” said Daniel Gourvitch, President at Mercer Advisors.
Intention.ly Expands RIA Group With Lambert And Mirabella
King of Prussia, Pennsylvania-based Intention.ly is tapping Randy Lambert, Executive Vice President of RIA Solutions, to lead the launch of Deliver Advice, the company’s RIA proprietary growth operating framework. Lambert will lead the new team supported by RIA COO veteran Jason Mirabella.
Lambert, who’s been with Inention.ly for six months, has helped lay the groundwork for Deliver Advice, an operating system designed specifically for RIAs. The framework helps financial services firms align their C-suite around a unified operating model.
“To achieve meaningful growth, RIAs need a partner who can both envision the future and design the steps to get there,” said Intention.ly’s CEO Kelly Waltrich. “Deliver Advice is the embodiment of that approach, and with Randy and Jason at the helm, I couldn’t be more excited about the impact we’ll create together.”
Savvy Wealth Appoints Weiner As Chief Growth Officer
New York City-based Savvy Wealth is appointing David Weiner as Chief Growth Officer, who will lead RIA recruitment efforts for the digital-first financial advisory company. The move comes after the firm quadrupled AUM and more than tripled advisor headcount in 2024. Weiner brings more than two decades of experience in sales, growth and marketing leadership roles across the startup and SaaS sectors, including positions at Compass, David Energy, Electric and Tekmetric.
Simultaneously, Savvy Advisors is also onboarded a wealth advisory team led by Robert Barone and Joshua Barone, who bring nearly $300 million in AUM to the firm. The pair are the founders of Universal Value Advisors and collectively have over 70 years of experience in investment management.
“Savvy is at a crucial phase of growth. Connecting with advisors who want to leverage technology to evolve the ways they support their clients is crucial to their growth trajectory,” Weiner said. “From my earliest conversations with [Founder and CEO] Ritik Malhotra, we were tightly aligned on specific, tangible paths forward to build connections with advisors.”
Julius Buchanan, Editor in Chief at Wealth Solutions Report, can be reached at julius.buchanan@wealthsolutionsreport.com.
