The $24 billion advisory firm Lido Advisors is merging with Pegasus Partners, a Wisconsin-based registered investment advisor with more than $3 billion in managed assets.
The deal will strengthen Lido’s engagement with ultra-high-net-worth families in the Midwest region “and beyond,” according to Lido Advisors President Ken Stern.
Pegasus was founded in 2015 and is based in Mequon, Wisc., specializing in comprehensive wealth management and family office needs for UHNW families. The firm focuses on investment management, financial planning, family wealth transfers and alternative investments. It is led by CEO Todd Krieg and President Matt D’Attilio, both of whom co-founded the firm.
“In Lido, we saw a partner who shares our mission of putting client interests first and serving them with deep investment capabilities, selective alternatives and advanced wealth planning,” Krieg said.
Pegasus's 22 employees are joining Lido as a part of the deal, with most becoming partners. Park Sutton Advisors served as Pegasus’s financial advisor in the merger.
In an interview with WealthManagement.com, Lido CEO Jason Ozur said the firm was attracted to Pegasus' “robust and scalable investment process” for alternatives, as well as a level of sophisticated due diligence on alts, particularly private equity funds and other types of funds.
“And that’s a great complement to Lido Advisors alternative strategy and our alternatives department,” Ozur said.
He said each M&A deal for the firm needed to offer a combination of talent and geography, and Pegasus hit both necessities, with the region being an area they’d “always wanted to plant a flag in.”
“And we have a very large client base in Milwaukee,” he said. “Being able to partner up with them in that geography was truly exciting.”
The Los Angeles-based Lido Advisors was founded in 1999 and has 15 physical offices nationwide. It serves more than 4,700 clients (about 805 of whom are UHNW). Private equity firm Charlesbank Capital Partners is Lido’s majority owner, having bought its stake in the RIA in 2021. Charlesbank oversaw investments for Harvard University’s endowment before spinning off as a middle-market PE investor.
Since Charlesbank took a majority stake, the firm’s managed assets have grown from about $6 billion to $24 billion.
Earlier this year, Lido sold a minority stake to Constellation Wealth Capital, the private equity firm founded by former Emigrant Partners CEO Karl Heckenberg. Constellation was launched in 2023 and has invested in two California-based firms besides Lido.
Days before the Lido announcement, $6.5 billion AUM Bay Area-based Perigon Wealth became Constellation’s second California partner, while Constellation invested in the $2.6 billion firm AlphaCore Wealth Advisory late last year.
In June, Lido made its first deal after selling the stake to Constellation when it acquired Shore Morgan Young, a $615 million RIA based in New Albany, Ohio (which has become known as “The Silicon Heartland” and viewed as a burgeoning tech hub).
