CAPTRUST Names New Head of M&A, Steward Partners Acquires Arizona Firm, and Family Offices Recalibrate in this Week's Edition...
Take a Lap Around the Industry 🏃
Family Offices Play Bigger Role in Global M&A Surge, Says KPMG (Future Family Office)
Swedish ‘Vibe Coding’ Startup Lovable in Talks for $1.5 Billion Valuation (Bloomberg)
Family Offices Recalibrate Private Assets Strategies (PWM)
Wandercraft Brings in $75M for Global Acceleration of AI-Powered Robotics (tech eu)
Family Office Deal Tracker
David Blitzer's Bolt Family Office has participated in a $20M Series A funding round for Ballers, a social sports venue company
Coral Vita has raised over $8M in a Series A funding round to help restore dying and damaged coral reefs with backing from Lukas Walton's family office, Builders Vision
In a Series C round, the pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturer, Antheia, has raised $56M with support from Strüngmann's family office, Athos KG
LawZero, a nonprofit AI safety lab launched by Yoshua Bengio, has received $30M in a Seed round with backing from Hillspire, LLC
American Fork, UT- based RCM Investments has been purchased by Merit Financial Advisors bringing in $281M in assets (Citywire)
Hub International Limited (HUB) has acquired Veripax Wealth Management, a $343M RIA in Folsom, CA (Citywire)
NewSpring Holdings' $8B RIA Wealthcare Capital Management in Richmond, VA joins Sammons Financial Group (connectmoney)
PE-backed Steward Partners has entered Arizona with the acquisition of Desert Sky Advisors, a $225M firm launched in 2016 (WealthManagement.com)
M&A Activity
Bluespring Wealth Partners, an RIA aggregator backed by Kestra Financial, has merged Cypress, Texas-based SilverStar Wealth Management into LifeBridge Financial Group, creating a combined firm with ~$1.4 billion in client assets.
SilverStar, led by Tim Hudson, has been affiliated with Kestra’s advisory and brokerage arms since 2019; LifeBridge was formed in 2020 through a merger and backed by Bluespring in 2021
Bluespring, led by former Focus Financial executive Pradeep Jayaraman, frequently acquires sub-$1 billion RIAs within the Kestra ecosystem
In 2025, Bluespring has expanded its footprint with acquisitions of Reliant Wealth Planning in Kentucky and Charter Capital Management in Wisconsin, continuing its strategy of targeting RIAs within the Kestra network
Coming from Capital Group, Ralph Haberli has joined Edelman Financial Engines as President (WealthManagement.com)
Minneapolis-based Elevation Point has poached the former chief marketing officer at Goldstone Financial Group, Lara Galloway as head of growth (WealthManagement.com)
Former Managing Director at ECHELON Partners, Mike Wunderli, joins CAPTRUST as head of M&A (WealthManagement.com)
The Bahnsen Group, a Hightower-affiliated RIA, has named Joseph Klein as President and Luis Garcia as CFO (Citywire)
European Billionaires Cash in as Stocks Soar
European billionaires are tapping into this year’s stock market rally by offloading sizable chunks of their listed holdings, collectively reaping about $1 billion in a rare wave of share sales. Among them, Spotify co-founder Martin Lorentzon sold $660 million worth of shares in late May—his largest disposal since the company went public in 2018—while Spain’s Maria del Pino cut her stake in Ferrovial SE by €271 million. Germany’s Struengmann twins also sold over $100 million in BioNTech shares. While each still holds major stakes in their respective companies, the timing reflects a broader strategic trend: with European stocks outperforming U.S. equities, driven by Germany’s fiscal stimulus and a stronger euro, many ultra-wealthy investors are crystallizing gains. The activity also highlights how family offices are leaning into equities, with average stock allocations rising to their highest level since 2019, per UBS. Even amid global uncertainty, Europe’s market momentum is pulling in—and cashing out—its richest shareholders.
FINTRX is an industry-leading AI-powered data intelligence solution covering 850,000+ financial firm and contact records, designed to empower industry professionals to efficiently and effectively engage with the global private wealth ecosystem. With innovative AI utility, detailed search parameters and customizable workflow tools, FINTRX enables seamless tracking of allocation trends, in-depth analysis of investment data, high-level relationship mapping and much more. To learn more or request a trial of the FINTRX product, click below.
.png?upscale=true&width=146&upscale=true&name=images%20(5).png)
.jpeg?upscale=true&width=140&upscale=true&name=download%20(60).jpeg)
