BKFi Adds $225 Million in Assets With First Acquisition of Wealth With Options

BKFi’s first acquisition adds roughly $225 million in assets under management, two partners and a West Coast base to the New York firm’s technology focused advice business. The San Diego based Wealth With Options joins BKFi, with Jackie Lewis, CFP, MBA, and Ryan Goldenhar, CFA, CFP, becoming partners and leading West Coast operations.

Founded in 2018 by CEO AJ Ayers, CFP, and Shane Mason, BKFi has built its business around the financial decisions that come with working in technology. The acquisition extends that model geographically and adds experience in private banking and trust services. For BKFi, the test will be whether it can bring those capabilities together while maintaining the client focus and working culture it says guide its expansion.

A specialized client base

Technology employees can face a mix of compensation and wealth planning decisions, including restricted stock units, stock options, pre-IPO planning, tender offers and concentrated holdings in a single company. The timing and potential value of those decisions can be linked to an employer’s fortunes, which can make financial planning more involved than managing a diversified portfolio alone.

BKFi says it advises executives and employees at companies including Palantir, Anthropic, Spotify and SpaceX. Its premise is that people navigating these issues benefit from advice designed around technology compensation. Adding Lewis and Goldenhar’s private banking and trust experience gives the firm another set of services to bring to clients, particularly those whose financial needs are expanding as their wealth grows.

“People who work in tech have some of the most complex financial lives in the country, and they deserve a firm that is fully dedicated to them,” Ayers said. “Jackie and Ryan bring the experience to make BKFi better, not just bigger, on a platform built to welcome firms like theirs.”

The acquisition also reflects a wider pattern: specialized advisory firms are seeking clients whose compensation and wealth needs call for coordinated planning. InvestmentNews has reported on rising consolidation among advisory firms. For BKFi, the specific rationale is to expand its reach among technology workers while adding capabilities that fit its existing client base.

Partners bring private banking experience

Lewis described the move as a way to apply her background serving high-net-worth families to clients earlier in their financial lives. She spent her career at private banks before joining BKFi, where she will help lead the firm’s West Coast presence alongside Goldenhar.

“I spent years at private banks serving families with significant wealth. The people BKFi works with deserve that same level of care and sophistication much earlier in their lives, when the decisions they make about their equity shape everything that comes after,” Lewis said.

Goldenhar said BKFi’s approach to advisors influenced his decision. “BKFi treats advisors as individuals with their own voices and gives them a platform to grow. Joining the firm lets us spend more of our time doing what we do best for our clients,” he said.

Their addition gives BKFi local leadership on the West Coast and adds two partners to its Leadership Team. That structure may help the firm serve clients in technology centers where it wants a stronger presence. The article provides no breakdown of how the acquired assets are invested, how many clients will join, or how responsibilities will be divided between the two partners. Those details would help clarify the operational scale of the integration.

Growth plans and the integration test

BKFi has said it intends to pursue more mergers in 2027 and beyond. The firm says it will assess potential partners for culture and client fit, rather than prioritize scale alone. That approach puts the emphasis on whether an incoming advisory business serves similar clients and can work within BKFi’s platform. It also means future growth will depend on finding firms that meet those criteria, not simply on the availability of acquisition opportunities.

A similar focus on fit has appeared in other transactions involving specialized advisory firms, including the Cerity Partners and Cordant Wealth Partners merger. The comparison offers context for BKFi’s stated strategy, though each transaction has its own rationale and integration demands. In BKFi’s case, the West Coast expansion will show how the firm applies its stated standards in practice.

Accelerated Wealth Partners (AWP), which made a minority investment in BKFi earlier in 2026, supports the transaction. AWP advises BKFi’s leadership on merger strategy and marketing, while Ayers and Mason retain operating control. The arrangement gives BKFi access to strategic support as it considers growth, while keeping day-to-day authority with the founders.

Investment from outside firms has become part of the growth picture for some independent advisory businesses. InvestmentNews has examined how private equity-backed platforms are shaping advisory firm expansion. The source of capital can matter to advisors weighing growth plans, but BKFi’s account places its emphasis on client philosophy and operating culture alongside financial considerations.

That emphasis will be measured by the day-to-day experience of clients and advisors as the firms combine. BKFi has described culture fit as a selection criterion and positioned the deal as a way to deepen its technology focused service. Its first acquisition gives that strategy a concrete starting point: two new partners, a larger asset base and operations on the West Coast. The next signal will be whether BKFi can integrate the business while preserving the specialized advice that defines its offer.