Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that Ashton Thomas Private Wealth (Ashton Thomas), a leading diversified financial advisory firm that specializes in advising foundations, business entities, and affluent individuals and families, has joined Arax Investment Partners (Arax), RedBird Capital Partners’ (RedBird) wealth management platform company. The transaction closed on August 31, 2023.
Ashton Thomas was founded in 2010 and has grown into an award-winning registered investment advisory firm. Its advisors serve foundations, business entities, and affluent individuals and families through fee-based financial planning and investment portfolio management, retirement plan consulting, and related financial education programs. The firm also strives to remain at the forefront of technological innovation and thought leadership within the financial services industry. Ashton Thomas currently has offices in Arizona, California, and various locations throughout the Rocky Mountains region. The firm is headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Arax is a rapidly growing, multi-boutique wealth management platform making strategic control investments in best-in-class operating companies in partnership with their founders and management teams. Arax is focused on making strategic investments and supporting RIAs, hybrid wealth managers, and advisory teams seeking a new growth platform to scale their businesses.
Both Arax and Ashton Thomas will benefit from enhanced capabilities in the highly fragmented wealth management space. It also further enhances Arax and Ashton Thomas’ abilities to meet the increasingly complex needs of elite wealth advisors and their clients by attracting top-tier advisors seeking a platform with the ability to scale and an independent and entrepreneurial culture.
Founded in 2014, RedBird is a private investment firm that builds high-growth companies and provides strategic capital solutions to founders and entrepreneurs. The firm integrates sophisticated private equity investing with a hands-on, business-building mandate that focuses on three core industry verticals: media and entertainment, sports and experiential consumers, and financial services. The firm currently manages approximately $10 billion in assets on behalf of a global group of blue-chip institutional and family-office investors.
Houlihan Lokey served as the exclusive financial advisor to Ashton Thomas and assisted in initiating, marketing, structuring, and negotiating the transaction on its behalf.
If you would like more information about Houlihan Lokey or have questions regarding the firm’s role in this transaction, please contact the team members listed below.
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