The Illinois-based group said it wants to significantly increase the pace of deals over the next five years, and has brought in an M&A expert to drive the charge.

Savant Wealth Management, the RIA, has appointed Patrick Lawlor as mergers and acquisitions head – a sign of how M&A is a significant focus for the organization.

Lawlor most recently served as president and head of M&A at The Mather Group, a wealth management firm in Chicago. In his new role at Savant, Lawlor will work with chief executive Brent Brodeski to lead the firm’s inorganic growth efforts. Savant, which clocked up five acquisitions last year, wants to grow by between three and five times over the next five years. The firm, which oversaw $14.3 billion in assets at the end of last year, said it intends a “significantly accelerated pace” for M&A in 2023 and beyond.

Such ambition chimes with broad industry trends of consolidation and change as a cohort of retiring advisors plan to sell businesses and others want to build scale to handle rising client expectations, service, and regulatory burdens. The pace of RIA transactions slackened somewhat last year as markets slid and turned choppier, but underlying secular drivers remain in place. (See an article here by FWR’s US correspondent Charles Paikert about the M&A and corporate strategies of several major groups.)

“In 2021 we re-capitalized to provide Savant significantly more growth capital to accelerate from incremental to exponential growth,” Brodeski said. “In 2022, we focused on strengthening our advisory leadership team to better position Savant for future growth. Now, we’re ramping up our growth engine by significantly expanding our M&A team, accelerating the size and volume of our M&A activity, and developing cutting-edge technology that will differentiate our client experience and help generate organic growth.”

Besides a number of hires, Savant invested $3 million in Australian fintech firm Lumiant last year, and is working with the company to develop a platform designed to create a more personalized client experience and portal. Brent Brodeski serves on Lumiant’s board of directors.

Savant Wealth Management, based in Rockford, Illinois, operates across the US.