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Deals · Financial ADVSR

Robertson Stephens passes $10 billion after combining with Milwaukee consultant Alpha

Robertson Stephens Wealth Management has combined with Alpha Investment Consulting Group, adding a Milwaukee office and a six-person team, the firm said.

Deals

WealthManagement.com reported that Robertson Stephens has passed $10 billion in client assets through a combination with Alpha Investment Consulting Group, a Milwaukee-based institutional consulting firm. In its own announcement the same day, Robertson Stephens Wealth Management, LLC said it had joined forces with Alpha, and that the deal brings a Milwaukee office plus a group of six people under Bob Bukowski.

The $10 billion figure is a measure of client assets the firm says it manages after the combination. It is not a purchase price, and the material reviewed for this article does not disclose the price or other financial terms of the transaction. The firm's release says the deal brings it to 28 advisory teams across 26 offices.

Alpha's size is reported inconsistently. WealthManagement.com cited a Form ADV figure of $714 million in assets under management for Alpha. Third-party profiles put Alpha's assets at about $635.7 million and about $560.5 million, and those figures have not been checked against the regulatory filing. Readers should treat the $714 million number as the one attributed to a regulatory filing in trade coverage, not as a figure confirmed in the filing itself.

The release frames the deal as an expansion of institutional consulting for foundations, nonprofits, faith-based organizations, corporations and endowments. WealthManagement.com reported that the combination brings an outsourced chief investment officer business serving endowments and nonprofits. Raj Bhattacharyya, the firm's CEO, told WealthManagement.com that the firm sees overlap between its wealth and institutional consulting operations, pointing to advisory clients who serve on foundation boards or have endowment roles.

WealthManagement.com also reported that Vikram Chugh, Robertson Stephens' chief operating officer for about 8.5 years, stepped down to become chief executive of CircleBlack, which is also backed by Long Arc Capital. On the Alpha side, trade coverage names Patrick Pierce, Tony Jones, Dan Strasser, Julia Ramer and Bailey Jordan as joining Bukowski, and Alpha's website lists Tony Jones, CFA, as director of research. Bukowski is described by trade coverage as the founder of Alpha in 1989 and as the leader of the new Milwaukee office.

Robertson Stephens' current wealth business relaunched in January 2018 with sponsorship from Long Arc Capital, according to Wikipedia, and the official launch announcement was dated December 17, 2018, with offices in San Francisco and New York. The original Robertson Stephens was a technology-focused investment bank that closed in 2002, according to the same source. The firm's Form ADV brochure describes Robertson Stephens Wealth Management as wholly owned by Robertson Stephens Holdings, LLC and affiliated with Long Arc Capital LP. An older 2020 brochure said the holding company was majority-owned by investment funds managed by Long Arc partners.

The firm's growth has been steady in recent releases. An October 29, 2025 release said it had exceeded $8 billion in client assets and added two Northeast advisor teams, reaching 26 teams in 25 offices. A February 4, 2026 release said it ended 2025 with $8.7 billion in advisory assets under management, up 23% year over year, and that it completed two acquisitions in 2025 that added or increased its presence in New York and Rhode Island. The $8.7 billion figure is an advisory AUM measure and should not be confused with the client-assets figure used for the $10 billion milestone.

Alpha, according to its own website, was founded in 1989 to give institutional investors tools to meet their fiduciary obligations. It is headquartered at 111 East Kilbourn Avenue in Milwaukee, describes itself as privately held and employee-owned, and says it has no parent company, subsidiaries or affiliates. Alpha describes itself as ranking among the biggest independent investment consultancies based in Wisconsin, a self-description rather than an outside finding. Alpha's site describes it as an SEC-registered institutional investment consulting firm.

Advisory firms that pair wealth management with institutional consulting often serve overlapping relationships, including individuals who also oversee nonprofit or endowment assets, which is the overlap the firm has cited. The next questions for the combination are practical: how the Milwaukee office and the Alpha team will be integrated, and whether a fuller regulatory breakdown of Alpha's assets will clarify the figures that currently vary across sources. The material reviewed does not describe an integration timeline.

Robertson Stephens also has an operating partnership structure in which advisor principals and senior executives hold equity, according to WealthManagement.com.

Sources

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