Summit Financial, the $20 billion New Jersey-based RIA backed by Merchant Investment Management, has added four new advisory teams. The four groups span the country and collectively total $1.2 billion in managed assets.
The new additions put Summit at 11 total deals in 2025 (after making 29 deals last year). Additionally, CEO Stan Gregor told WealthManagement.com that about two dozen firms with over $1 billion in assets under management are in conversations about joining Summit.
“From a Summit perspective, I have no shortage of deal flow,” he said. “I guess our name has really resonated out in the marketplace, and a lot of our existing partners have been reached out to by prospective partners. They’re hearing the same consistent story.”
The largest recent addition is the $633 million firm Everest Consultants, based in Syracuse, N.Y. The firm was founded in 1997 and is led by Managing Partner Alexander Pasquale and minority owners Nate Gavitt and Anita Lombardi. It works with individuals, families, business owners and employer-sponsored retirement plans throughout the Northeast.
Summit also added Albuquerque, N.M.-based Crow Financial Advisors, broadening its Southwest footprint. The firm, led by husband-and-wife advisory team Tom and Vicki Crow, was founded over 30 years ago and manages over $143 million in assets.
In May, the firm also added Dublin, Ohio-based Heritage Wealth Partners. The firm was founded in 2007 by President and CEO Matthew Keyes and manages $176 million in client assets. Also in May, Summit added Sarasota, Fla.-based LPF Advisors, which is led by co-founders Mark Picchi and Kristopher Flammang and advises on over $277 million in assets.
“We’re excited to gain access to Summit’s technology and investment resources, letting us elevate our services and meet the unique needs of each client,” Flammang said about the deal.
According to Gregor, the firm began over 40 years ago as a multifamily service model and has exploded in AUM from $4 billion to $25 billion in the past several years. Gregor said the jump was split between acquisitions and organic growth.
Firms joining Summit access the company’s multi-family office-style services, including technology, financial planning, investment management, insurance and operational needs. They keep full ownership of their businesses and can choose from multiple custodians. In 2019, Merchant Investment Management made a minority investment in the firm, but the company now owns a controlling stake, according to recent SEC records.
According to Gregor, Summit is up 30% from the first quarter in deal volume and revenue. He said that since the start of the year, he’d seen a boost in the number of multi-billion-dollar teams reaching out to Summit (also boasting that the firm’s business development team hasn’t had to make outbound calls to find interested teams in two years).
However, Gregor said he was disturbed “by the lack of transparency” in some industry deals. Too often, buyers will lead with “selling the sizzle” while not detailing the more complex lifts on the back end, and Gregor recalled a phrase he’d heard several times from firms stepping into a partnership with a promise of support that fell short.
“‘I feel like my partner is a tick, right? They just keep sucking blood out of me,’” Gregor said, reiterating what he’d heard from aggravated sellers. “‘I signed this deal as a minority or some kind of partnership, and I was told I was going to get all this blah, blah, blah support or whatever it is. And here I am. I’m the guy doing all the work, and every quarter I’m giving them a check.”
Gregor suggested a hypothetical live conversation between himself and many of Summit’s competitors to discuss deal terms, questioning whether listeners would get answers to the questions they sought from his competitors.
“‘Hey, how do you guys do a deal?’” Gregor said about the questions he’d want answered. “‘Tell me about the front end. How do you pay people? If there’s an event, what happens on the back end? Does that guy get what he truly thinks he’s getting?’”
In seeking acquisition partners, Gregor didn’t focus on geographic expansion, but wants Summit to help firms “control the client experience” instead of outsourcing to vendors “that may or may not give a hoot about your client.” In seeking new firms, Gregor said he looked for teams wanting to use Summit’s toolbox to become their “sole advisor or consigliere” for all financial services needs.
“The industry has been fine by saying, ‘well, a slice of the pie is better than no pie,’” Gregor said. “Well, what if you had the whole pie? What if you were able to eat the whole pie? That’s been the Summit model.”
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