After a strong 2024, Carson Group is starting off its 2025 deal season strong with a key transaction in a major market.
On Thursday, the Omaha, Nebraska-based firm announced its full acquisition of Carson Wealth Chicago, marking a significant milestone for the firm's growth strategy.
The Chicago branch, led by managing partner and wealth advisor Mark McCallum, has expanded its assets under management from $163 million in 2019 to over $1 billion at the close of 2024.
“The Carson Wealth Chicago office demonstrates the type of radical scale advisors can achieve via strategic leadership, robust client relationships, and an effective growth strategy,” Burt White, CEO of Carson Group, said in a statement Thursday.
The deal in Chicago is just the latest in a long line of strategic full acquisitions at Carson Wealth. Across its network, the firm has 21 wholly owned Carson Wealth offices. Six of those were added just last year, including its Cedar Rapids, Iowa location.
"The transition to becoming wholly owned was a natural progression for Carson Wealth Chicago’s partnership with Carson and represents the next step in their growth journey," White said. "Many firms struggle with continuing to provide exceptional client service while growing their practice and worry about preserving their legacy for the future."
Over its five years of parabolic AUM growth, Carson Wealth Chicago expanded into five locations with more than 15 offices, helped along by support and resources coming from the Carson network.
"Continuing our commitment to personalized, high-quality client service is paramount to our success,” said McCallum, managing partner and wealth advisor. “Our decision to evolve our partnership with Carson Group will allow us to streamline our operations and focus on delivering even greater value to clients while continuing our expansion in the region through acquisitions."
White is seeing greater interest in buyouts across Carson Group, which currently manages more than $40 billion in assets via a network of more than 50 Carson Wealth locations. Around 15 of its offices are minority owned, though the number is in flux as more firms choose to be wholly acquired to help solve succession concerns.
"The financial advice industry is in a period of aging advisors with more and more advisors retiring," White explained. "Where G2 advisors are part of the business, becoming wholly owned enables them to take over a practice where the valuation economics don’t make it feasible for them to buy the practice outright."
"Investing in rapidly growing firms gives Carson an opportunity to implement our 40 years of proven strategies, which enable advisors to focus on growing the practice they built while also having access to capital to help them grow," White said. "For those that go wholly owned, owners can walk away on their own time with peace of mind."
Beyond continuing its supportive M&A strategy for 2025, Carson Group is also pushing forward with a new tax planning strategy. That program, which it announced earlier this month alongside its acquisition of Taylor Financial Group, is set to launch in the first quarter.
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