By James Ianaconi, SVP & Head of Partnerships, Aspen Standard Wealth
While mega RIA acquisitions get all the headlines, one of the most underappreciated and underreported drivers of M&A activity in the RIA sector are sub acquisitions under $500 million in assets under management (AUM). These acquisitions often represent the greatest value and opportunity for both buyers and sellers.
According to research from DeVoe, RIA firms under $500 million in AUM accounted for 42% of all consolidator acquisitions during the first half of 2026.[1]
I recently sat down with Kendall Bolt, CEO of SKY Investment Group (which itself was acquired by Aspen Standard Wealth in 2025), to learn more about his recent experience leading the acquisitions of two firms; Keynote Financial Services, and Ferguson, Andrews Investment Advisers, Inc.; with a total of approximately $325 million in AUM.
Kendall, what resources has Aspen provided that have made the acquisitions you’ve completed possible?
Aspen has given us the resources and support to pursue opportunities that would have been much more difficult for SKY to execute on independently. Obviously, access to capital is a big piece of that, but I believe the expertise and infrastructure from Aspen has been just as important.
Aspen has a team that has done this multiple times before and understands what it takes to get a transaction from an initial conversation all the way through closing and integration. That includes diligence, legal, compliance, technology, HR and operational support. As a CEO, that allows me to spend more of my time with the founders and advisors, to really understand their business, their clients and what they want the next chapter to look like.
That combination is incredibly powerful. We still operate SKY as a local, entrepreneurial business, but we have the resources of a larger organization behind us when we need them.
Why do you believe so many independent RIAs struggle to execute on M&A in this environment?
M&A is a lot harder than it looks. Most independent RIAs are already running very busy businesses. The leadership team is serving clients, managing employees, investing portfolios, dealing with compliance, and trying to grow organically. Then you layer an acquisition on top of all of that; it’s a lot.
It takes a tremendous amount of time and energy to source M&A opportunities, build relationships, value businesses, negotiate transactions, complete diligence and then actually integrate the firm successfully. And you still have to run your existing business well throughout the entire process.
I think capital is certainly part of the challenge, but bandwidth and experience are probably just as important. Having a partner like Aspen gives us the ability to do both. We can continue investing in SKY and serving our clients while also being thoughtful and opportunistic about M&A.
How have the firms you have acquired benefited from their new partnership with SKY / Aspen?
One of the things I’m most excited about is that we’re not asking these firms to give up what made them successful. We’re trying to take the things they already do extremely well and surround them with additional resources.
They now have access to a broader investment platform, financial planning capabilities, technology, compliance, operations, marketing, and business development resources. They also have a larger team around them, which creates more depth and continuity for their clients.
For many founders, succession is also a major consideration. They have spent decades building their businesses, and they want to know their clients and employees will be taken care of. Our partnership gives them a long-term solution while still allowing them to remain involved and continue doing the parts of the business they enjoy most.
Ultimately, the goal is simple: let great advisors spend more time with their clients and less time dealing with everything that comes with running an independent RIA.
Organizational culture is very important to many RIA founders. How has SKY helped maintain and respect the legacies of the firms you have acquired?
This is probably one of the most important aspects of our approach. RIA founders have often spent 20, 30 or sometimes 40 years building their businesses. Their name, reputation, and client relationships mean a tremendous amount to them, and we respect that.
We’re not coming in on day one and saying, “Here is how SKY does everything, so this is how you’re going to do it now.” We spend a lot of time understanding why they built the business the way they did, what their clients value, and what parts of their culture are important to preserve.
There are obviously areas where bringing firms together creates efficiencies and where we can make the combined organization better, but we are very thoughtful about that. You don’t want to destroy the very things that made a firm attractive to you and successful in the first place.
For us, preserving a founder’s legacy isn’t just about keeping a name on the door. It’s making sure their clients continue to receive the level of care they have come to expect, and that the values they built the business around continue long after the transaction closes.
How has SKY competed against the mega RIA acquirers? What does SKY offer that the behemoths cannot (or will not)?
I think our size is actually an advantage. We’re large enough, particularly with Aspen behind us, to have the capital, technology, investment resources and infrastructure to compete with much larger organizations. But we’re still small enough that every partnership matters.
When a firm joins SKY, they’re not becoming office number 75 inside a national organization. They’re partnering directly with our leadership team. I know the leaders, I know their teams, and I’m going to get to know their clients. They have a genuine opportunity to help shape where we’re going as an organization.
I also think there’s a philosophical alignment that matters. We’re building SKY for the long term. We care deeply about investment management, financial planning, client service and maintaining that personal relationship between an advisor and their clients. We’re not trying to create a giant collection of firms for the sake of getting bigger.
At the end of the day, our differentiator is that we can offer many of the resources and capabilities of a much larger RIA without losing the entrepreneurial culture, personal relationships, and local identity that made these firms successful in the first place.
That’s a pretty compelling combination for the right advisor and RIA.
[1] Source: https://48115356.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/48115356/Q2%202026%20DeVoe%20Deal%20Book_%20FINALpdf.pdf
