EP Wealth, an acquisitive registered investment advisor based in Torrance, Calif., has acquired Opes Wealth Management, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based firm with over $900 million in assets under management.
This represents EP’s fifth deal of 2026, bringing its total Bay Area presence to about $6 billion in assets.
Opes was founded in 2005 as Opes Advisors to bring together real estate and wealth management expertise under a single firm. Mark Duvall was one of the founders. Flagstar Bancorp acquired that entity in 2017. Duvall then registered Opes Wealth Management and now runs the firm, alongside Erin Whalen, who also came out of Opes Advisors.
The firm’s eight team members will join EP Wealth, with Duvall and Whalen serving as regional directors.
Kyle Miller, chief M&A partnership officer at EP Wealth, said his firm was impressed with the quality of the Opes team, its planning-first approach, and track record of organic growth.
“The depth of what they’re doing both in terms of with executives in the technology sector and with individuals who have significant real estate exposure on their personal balance sheet—which, as you know, that geography is significant—is really unique, and we think it’ll be additive to what we’re doing at EP,” Miller said.
Opes was looking for a platform to help them grow, and EP can provide them with family office services and planning capabilities. The RIA has some 45 professionals doing nothing but planning.
“The demand for EP’s family office suite of services is at an all-time high,” Miller said. “The amount of folks looking for what EP’s already built out—integrated, in-house tax, trust, planning and estate at scale—is incredible.”
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Alaris Acquisitions advised Opes on the transaction.
This follows last week’s news that EP Wealth launched a cash-based incentive program for non-shareholder employees. The Shared Prosperity Program is meant to align economic incentives with all employees who aren’t current or prospective shareholders today.
“We want to make sure that everyone who’s benefiting the client experience is also benefiting from the growth of EP,” Miller said. “We wanted to provide an additional economic incentive for the next iteration of EP’s growth.”
Those employees will now participate in the upside of the firm’s share price through a cash payout tied to a percentage of their current salary and based on future growth.