We use AI-driven matchmaking, decades of Wall Street experience and curated contacts, to align RIA buyers and sellers based on six major categories of alignment. These include: cultural fit, leadership alignment, personality fit, business fit, operational compatibility, and economics to drive the highest likelihood of success long after the deal closes. Our unique matching process ultimately leads to the highest price and deal structure.
Boardwalk's Navigator tool combines AI with human capital to quickly narrow the playing field amongst a large pool of highly curated RIA acquirers and ensures sellers maximize enterprise value, have greater resources in the areas of importance to them, and enjoy their new partnership long after the deal closes.
With three decades of Wall Street experience, the Boardwalk team packages and presents your business to a pre-screened, highly curated group of RIA professional buyers, zeroing in on cultural and business fit to ensure the value of your life's work is realized and your legacy endures.
Unlike traditional M&A advisory firms who focus exclusively on the highest price through an auctioneer process, Boardwalk uses a unique matchmaking approach that expedites the process, avoids time wasted, and helps ensure long-lasting M&A partnerships.
Boardwalk brings a differentiated AI experience to the M&A wealth management space, prioritizing best fit, excited and enthusiastic partners, and high valuations.
Boardwalk ensures cultural fit, business fit, and enterprise value are aligned from the start. From pre-sale preparedness and coaching, we provide guidance tailored to the outcome you want which maximizes the odds of post-transaction success and long-term satisfaction.
Unlike M&A advisors who rely on auction processes, our proprietary AI focuses on finding the right match to deliver a more seamless, more successful experience for everyone at the table.
Shad Besikof, MBA, brings 30 years of expertise advising RIAs on growth, mergers, and sales. His career spans from investment advisory at major Wall Street firms to executive leadership at major RIA custodians, and buy-side M&A which gives him a firsthand view of every angle of a successful transaction; a perfect advocate for sell-side clients.
Through hundreds of seller meetings led by sell-side bankers, Shad saw the flaws in the traditional auction process, where maximizing price often overshadows true compatibility. That insight led him to launch Boardwalk Financial Partners, a platform that pairs AI tooling with human judgment to create genuinely well-matched buyer-seller partnerships, offering a fairer, more efficient alternative to advisors who prioritize short-term gains over long-term success.
Boston-based RIA CW Advisors acquired Catalina Capital Group, a fee-only RIA managing roughly $655M in assets, in a continued push into the West Coast market.
June 2026The addition of Catalina Capital Group brings roughly $655 million in assets under management into CW Advisors' growing national footprint.
June 2, 2026CW Advisors confirmed its purchase of fellow RIA Catalina Capital Group, based near Los Angeles, as part of its broader westward growth strategy.
June 3, 2026