Office address: 521 Fifth Avenue, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10175
Website: wealthspire.com
Year established: 1995
Company type: financial services
Employees: 1,200+
Expertise: wealth management, financial planning, investment management, retirement advisory, family office services, outsourced chief investment officer (OCIO), estate planning, tax and gift planning, charitable giving, executive compensation
Parent company: Madison Dearborn Partners
Key people: Mike LaMena (CEO), Eric Sontag (chair), Carl Nelson (president), Bradford Long (CIO), Brett Schneider (CFO), Michael Goss (chief revenue officer), Angela Giombetti (CMO), Nataly Sogoloff (chief people officer)
Financing status: private equity-backed
Wealthspire is a New York-based wealth management platform that includes Wealthspire Advisors, an independent RIA operating under a fiduciary model with no proprietary products. It serves individuals, families, executives, and institutions across the US, Canada, and the UK. The firm employs over 1,200 professionals in 40+ offices and reports nearly $600 billion in combined assets as of 2025.
The company got its start when founder Howard Sontag created Sontag Advisory LLC in New York City in 1995. Sontag said that clients deserved a financial advisor who worked purely for them, free from sales incentives and proprietary products. So, he launched as a small boutique RIA with a fiduciary structure that sought to put client interests first.
Sontag Advisory's next chapter began when NFP Corp., a NY-based financial services company, brought the firm under its umbrella. NFP then turned its attention to Bronfman Rothschild, a Maryland-based independent RIA.
In 2019, NFP integrated Sontag Advisory and Bronfman Rothschild to create a combined RIA with nearly $12 billion in AUM. Later that year, the Wealthspire Advisors brand officially launched to unify both firms across 11 offices with more than 120 associates.
The firm continued to build out its presence through strategic acquisitions in the years that followed. In 2022, it integrated Lenox Wealth Advisors, an NFP-affiliated firm. Then in 2023, Wealthspire acquired GMAG (GM Advisory Group LLC) to further broaden its client base and geographic reach.
The biggest ownership shift came in 2024 when Aon plc, a London-based insurance giant, completed its $13 billion acquisition of NFP Corp.
Aon's focus, however, was on NFP's insurance business rather than its wealth management units. In 2025, Aon sold the wealth businesses to Madison Dearborn Partners, a Chicago-based private equity firm, for $2.7 billion.
The deal brought together five businesses under the Wealthspire brand:
By November 2025, these businesses were operating as an integrated Wealthspire platform rather than as five fully separate shops.
That same year, the firm picked up a string of honors from major financial publications across the country. InvestmentNews recognized the firm in multiple programs:
For more on these recognitions, see our Special Reports page.
Wealthspire Advisors is a fiduciary RIA with no proprietary products and offers the following services:
It also covers compensation, transition, and succession planning for executives, attorneys, and business owners. Entities like Fiducient Advisors and Ground Control extend the platform into institutional consulting and business management.
In 2020, two-thirds of the company met over four days to shape its needed culture from scratch. That process produced six core beliefs that guide how the team should work day to day:
Wealthspire's career programs include Find Your People, an advisor development initiative launched in 2025 for all career stages. Since the shift to Madison Dearborn Partners, employees can also participate in firm equity, in addition to:
The firm aims to carry its culture outward through ASPIRE by Wealthspire, a national philanthropy platform. Before its launch, it had donated nearly $500,000 to more than 40 charities and raised over $25,000 through Advisers Give Back.
Mike LaMena, AIF, leads Wealthspire Advisors as CEO with nearly 30 years in financial services. LaMena previously served as president and COO at HighTower, a role he held for seven years. LaMena spent his first 14 years at Morgan Stanley & Co. and earned a BA in English from Notre Dame.
Supporting LaMena in leading Wealthspire is a team of executive leaders:
The team addresses both client-facing and operational functions across the firm. Each role covers a specific area within a firm that spans over 40 offices.
The sale of Wealthspire to Madison Dearborn Partners, completed on October 30, 2025, let the firm step out of Aon's insurance shadow. This allowed the company to operate as an independent, private equity‑backed RIA.
The new ownership also gives employees a more direct way to hold equity in the business, aligning them with future teams that join through organic growth or acquisitions.
After reshaping its ownership, the company is now expanding how it serves ultra-wealthy families. The firm launched Wealthspire Family Office, which brings together specialists from its subsidiaries to support complex, multigenerational households.
It already works with more than 300 families and nearly $50 billion in assets, so the platform deepens planning and governance for the next generation.
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The executor of an estate plays a valuable role in not only overseeing a financial plan but also keeping peace in the family.
The $6.5B RIA's founder Bill Sowell says roughly a quarter of its current clients qualify for Cache River Private Wealth, which will bring "family office lite" services to clients worth at least $5 million.
“We’re at the very beginning of this transformation, this evolution,” said Dayna Kleinman, managing director at Sagard.
The Oregon-domiciled RIA brings $11 billion in assets to Fiducient's growing institutional platform, marking the second acquisition by Wealthspire's advisory unit this month.
Meanwhile a $1.5B deal sees Fool Wealth formally join Apollon Wealth Management.
Iranian attacks are disrupting Dubai’s financial operations, prompting advisors to assist with client exit planning. “We faced a client wanting to move out of Dubai with physical assets such as gold, which became effectively immobile,” says Wealthspire’s Joshua Shoshan.
“Advisors have become less reactionary and tried to be more proactive in terms of how they're building and managing portfolios,” said Chris Maxey, chief market strategist at Wealthspire.
As the number of UNHW families expands, more wealth managers are creating family offices to cater to their needs - and then some.
Elsewhere, Carson secures another foothold in California with a $635 million partner firm, while independently owned First Manhattan integrates a veteran-owned Wyoming practice.
Wealth management firm’s business advisory arm adds business reputed for financial intricacies of the music business.
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Channing Olson, of Wealthspire, Joe Di Vito, of the Di Vito Consulting Group at RBC Wealth Management, and Lauren Williams, of ProsperPlan Wealth share insights into how technology has changed the profession and what the future might hold for advisors.
