A Chicago-headquartered business has agreed to buy a Wisconsin-based RIA that had started out life as a multi-family office, continuing a run of M&A deals in wealth management.

Chicago-headquartered RMB Capital, an independent financial services firm with more than $8.4 billion in assets under management, is to merge with Jacobus Wealth Management, a privately-held Registered Investment Advisor based in Milwaukee, Wis. The announcement adds to a run of M&A deals around North American wealth management in recent weeks. 

The transaction will add about $860 million in assets under management to RMB Capital, it said in a statement. Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

JWM employees, including Peter Bach, JWM chairman and chief executive, and Dan Matola, JWM president and chief investment officer, will become RMB employees as of the transaction closing date, November 30. 

Richard Jacobus, JWM chairman emeritus, founded the firm in 1985 and served as chairman until late 2009, when Bach assumed the role.

“JWM is well-known in Milwaukee, where the team has established a reputation for the quality of service they provide to their clients,” Richard M Burridge, Jr., RMB founding partner, CEO and chief investment officer. “My long-time colleague and RMB partner Jeff Pearsall has known senior executives from JWM for more than a decade, and it’s a great fit from a philosophical and cultural perspective,” Burridge added. 

When JWM was founded, it was a single family office serving multiple generations of the Jacobus family. It became a RIA in 1996 and began serving additional clients with its investment advisory and family office services. Over time, the firm expanded its capabilities related to tax and financial planning.

RMB, besides its Chicago HQ, has offices in Denver; Jackson Hole, Wyo; Lake Forest, Ill; Minneapolis; New York; Oakbrook Terrace, Ill.; and Washington DC. It describes itself as an "independent, diversified financial services firm". 

The North American wealth industry has seen a raft of M&A deals. For example, three weeks ago Tiedemann Wealth Management, a New York-based wealth advisor with about $12 billion in assets under advisement, agreed to buy Seattle-headquartered Threshold Group, a wealth-advisory firm and family office with $3.4 billion in assets under management. Last week, meanwhile, a private equity firm, Thomas H Lee Partners, bought a "significant stake" in US wealth management advisory house HighTower and pledged to commit $100 million in new equity capital once the acquisition is completed, giving another twist to corporate action in a sector going through major change.