From Succession to Scale: David DeVoe on What's Driving RIA M&A Today (EP.42)

From Succession to Scale: David DeVoe on What's Driving RIA M&A Today (EP.42)

David DeVoe, founder and CEO of DeVoe & Company, has spent more than 25 years advising independent RIAs through some of the most significant decisions of their professional lives. He joins CAIS CMO Alex Cavalieri at CAIS Live | Leaders in Wealth to share his view on what's driving M&A activity for the independent advisor, and where he believes it’s heading.   David also discusses why organic growth has become an important metric in firm valuation, what a real growth culture looks like from the inside out, and why he believes succession planning is about to re-emerge as the dominant force in deal activity. He shares his framework for evaluating cultural fit in M&A and the questions he believes every founder should be asking before they go to market. Chapters  Chapter 1: The Structural Shift in RIA M&A (02:42) Chapter 2: The Psychology of the Independent Founder (05:10) Chapter 3: What a Firm Health Diagnostic Really Looks Like (08:11) Chapter 4: Organic Growth as a Valuation Multiplier (08:59) Chapter 5: Why the Industry Underinvests in Growth (10:40) Chapter 6: Building a Comprehensive Integrated Growth Strategy (13:18) Chapter 7: Starting With Purpose (16:57) Chapter 8: Dynamic KPIs and the Long Game (21:46) Chapter 9: Making Culture Tangible in M&A (29:59) Chapter 10: Five to Seven Years of Activity Ahead (31:38)

Software, AI, and the Next Innovation Cycle: A Conversation With David Breach (EP.41)

Recorded live at CAIS Live, this episode features David Breach, President of Vista Equity Partners, in conversation with CAIS Co-President Brad Walker. David reflects on a nontraditional path, from food salesman at 19 to Michigan Law to his current role as part of a $100 billion private equity firm, and what he believes each chapter taught him. He shares Vista's founding operating thesis, some of the hardest lessons learned across 90 portfolio companies, and his perspective on where enterprise software stands today. From factory floors to DoorDash drivers, he uses vivid analogies throughout to cut through the noise around generative AI and what it actually means for the industry. Chapters Chapter 1: From Food Salesman to Firm President (00:02:18)  Chapter 2: What Sales Taught Him About Investing (00:04:08)  Chapter 3: Vista's Founding Thesis, 26 Years Later (00:05:38)  Chapter 4: The Hardest Lesson: Management Matters Most (00:09:56)  Chapter 5: Reading the SaaS Selloff (00:12:35)  Chapter 6: The Factory Floor and the Agentic Shift (00:17:52)  Chapter 7: AI Is Going to Eat Services, Not Software (00:21:15)  Chapter 8: The Rule of 60 (00:27:41)  Chapter 9: The Inference Cost Problem (00:35:23)

Inside SEIA’s Growth Playbook With President Matt Matrisian (EP. 40)

Alternative investments, private markets, and wealth management are converging, and financial advisors need infrastructure that can keep up. Matt Matrisian, President of Signature Estate & Investment Advisors (SEIA) joins host Alex Cavalieri on CAIS Live Conversations: Building With Alts to share his perspective on scaling a firm while maintaining a personal, advisor-first approach.   Matt discusses SEIA’s team-based advisor model, the firm’s investment in a centralized data lake and AI-powered tools, and how he approaches M&A without disrupting culture. He also weighs in on the shift to private markets, why he believes advisor education may be the industry’s most pressing need, and the growth mindset that he sees separating the firms that scale from those that stall.  Chapter 1: Welcome and Introduction (01:19) Chapter 2: A Career Built Across Wealth Management (02:03) Chapter 3: Scaling a Turnkey Asset Management Platform (07:34) Chapter 4: Maintaining the Personal Touch (10:02) Chapter 5: Expanding Advisor Capabilities and Reach (12:57) Chapter 6: M&A Strategy and Cultural Alignment (18:10) Chapter 7: Building an AI-Powered Advisor Platform (21:34) Chapter 8: Data Integrity and Choosing the Right Partners (33:40) Chapter 9: Private Markets, Private Credit, and the Advisor Education Gap (37:02) Chapter 10: Growth Mindset and Advice for the Next Generation (41:51)

The “OG” of Private Credit: Randy Schwimmer on the Middle Market’s Movement (EP. 39)

Recorded at CAIS Live | Leaders in Wealth, CAIS Co-President Brad Walker sits down with Randy Schwimmer, Vice Chairman and Chief Investment Strategist at Churchill Asset Management, a Nuveen affiliate. Randy shares his view on why he believes the core middle market may be one of the most overlooked corners of the private market and why the current wave of headline risk, from tariffs to rate uncertainty, could reinforce that case. They also discuss Churchill’s origination model, the education gap between institutional and private wealth investors, what Randy believes is driving redemption pressure across the industry, and why he sees illiquidity as a feature, not a flaw. Chapters  1. A Career Built in the Middle Market (00:02:54) 2. Churchill's Role Inside Nuveen (00:06:33)  3. Bridging the Gap to Private Wealth (00:12:26)  4. Headline Risk and the "Gift of the Month Club" (00:15:02)  5. Seeing Through the Macro Noise (00:18:30)  6. What Private Markets May Solve for in Portfolios (00:27:58)  7. Redemption Pressure and the Liquidity Question (00:31:57)  8. Hardest Lesson in 30 Years of Credit (00:40:21)  9. NAV Marks and Transparency (00:48:07)  10. The OG of Private Credit (00:50:20)

From Intel to Independence: Jerry Verseput on Correlation, Customization, & Structured Notes (38)

Structured notes, portfolio customization, and rethinking what diversification really means—Jerry Verseput, founder of Veripax (now part of HUB International), brings an engineer’s perspective to wealth management. On this episode of CAIS Live Conversations: Building With Alts, Jerry sits down with CAIS CMO Alex Cavalieri to share how the Great Financial Crisis reshaped his approach to portfolio construction, his views on traditional asset class diversification as “different colors of M&Ms,” and how structured notes may help advisors target outcomes rather than chase benchmarks. They also discuss the realities of building and eventually selling an independent RIA, navigating liquidity conversations, and what Jerry sees ahead for the wealth management industry.