Two more advisory firms have found new homes inside larger national platforms, joining a wave of consolidation reshaping the independent wealth management landscape and compressing the options available to firms caught in the middle of the market.
Lido Advisors, a national wealth advisory firm overseeing more than $42 billion in regulatory assets under management, announced it is partnering with Jackson Hole Capital Partners, an independent Tulsa, Oklahoma-based firm managing more than $1 billion in RAUM.
Separately, Integrated Partners, a national registered investment advisory firm serving more than $25 billion in assets under advisement, said City Square Wealth Management, a Charlestown, Massachusetts-based practice with roughly $850 million in client assets, has joined its advisor network.
The two deals reflect a market that, by nearly every measure, is operating at full throttle. According to the 2026 RIA Deal Room report by Advisor Growth Strategies, the RIA industry recorded 276 transactions in 2025 – a new high – with a median valuation multiple of 11.6 times adjusted EBITDA, also a record. More than 100 distinct firms completed at least one acquisition last year, and 50 completed multiple deals.
Yet beneath those headline numbers, the consultancy's research identifies a structural shift with significant consequences for firms managing between $500 million and $5 billion in assets, a segment it called "the vanishing middle."
The two transactions announced this week reflect the kinds of firms larger strategic buyers are actively targeting – clean recurring revenue, specialized client relationships, and leadership teams positioned for continuity.
Jackson Hole Capital Partners, led by managing partners Channing Smith and John Hastings, brings experience from institutional asset management backgrounds. The six-person team will join Lido as partners, adding expertise in customized traditional and alternative investment strategies to a platform that already offers tax and estate planning and a broader family office service model.
"Joining Lido is a natural next step – one allowing us to continue providing the highly customized solutions our clients count on, while expanding our ability to comprehensively meet their most important life goals," Hastings said. "Lido's capabilities in tax and estate planning, combined with its overall family office approach, will resonate with our clients now and as we continue to grow our impact."
The Jackson Hole team is arriving just days after Lido announced Brian Haloossim as its new president, filling a void left as founding partner Ken Stern ascended to co-CEO alongside Jason Ozur.
City Square, which operates out of Charlestown and serves multigenerational client families, brings a 15-person team to Integrated Partners – six advisors and nine support professionals. The firm will access Integrated's proprietary advisor dashboard and its CPA Alliance network, a nationwide infrastructure linking advisors with tax professionals.
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"Joining Integrated allows us to remain true to who we are while gaining access to the scale, technology and strategic support needed for our next chapter," said Kevin Connors, private wealth advisor and managing partner at City Square. "As our clients' needs become more complex, Integrated gives us the resources to enhance our planning capabilities, support our team and deliver an even more connected experience for the families we serve."
The deal is the third affiliation Integrated has announced in recent weeks, following partnerships with Scottsdale-based SIGIL Family Office and Denver-based Brick by Brick Wealth Advisors, as the firm approaches its 30th anniversary.
The Advisor Growth Strategies report, drawing on data from 60 transactions closed in 2025, found that demand for acquisitions has never been higher, but that demand does not translate evenly across the market.
"This year's research highlighted the pressure on middle-market firms," Brandon Kawal, a partner at Advisor Growth Strategies and the report's lead author, said in a statement. "Talent is driving acquisitions, equitization is no longer optional, and buyers are focused on long-term incentive alignment. We expect the gap between average and premium valuations to continue to widen."
Firms with assets greater than $5 billion – representing fewer than 2% of all RIAs – controlled more than 54% of channel assets at the end of 2024, according to Cerulli Associates data cited in the report. That concentration has grown steadily since 2019, when mid-market firms ($500 million to $5 billion in AUM) controlled 42% of assets. By 2024, that share had fallen to 31%.
The upshot is that owners of mid-sized practices face a choice between investing aggressively in organic growth and talent to remain competitive as independents, or embracing the idea that getting acquired by a larger platform may offer its clients and staff a better long-term outcome.
"Thriving as a boutique wealth firm in the middle of the market is more challenging than ever before," said John Furey, managing partner at Advisor Growth Strategies. "Firms facing the rising challenges of expanding services, retaining talent, and evaluating new AI technology will be driven to do hard internal work or seek external optionality from more selective buyers."
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