Wealth Enhancement Group, a rapidly growing independent financial services firm based in Minneapolis, is expanding its presence in the Midwest with the acquisition of SVA Financial Group, its largest acquisition to date.

The acquisition will not only increase the geographic area for the firm but also will expand the services it provides, particularly to high-net-worth clients, Jeff Dekko, CEO of Wealth Enhancement Group, said in an interview.

“Scale is important, but we want to grow in a thoughtful way. We want to have local scale,” he said. “Our strategy has not been to buy firms everywhere. We have a large footprint in Minnesota and Chicago. This acquisition expands our footprint to Wisconsin, where we will have $4.5 billion to $5 billion in client assets.

“The acquisition also allows us to offer additional services,” Dekko said. “One of our fastest growing areas is service to high-net-worth clients. This allows us to layer in more services for those clients. As a firm, we continue to grow rapidly. We are also adding key personnel” for digital enhancements to prepare for the future.

SVA Financial Group, based in Madison, Wis., has $3.2 billion in client assets and 22 advisors, all of which are fee based. With the acquisition, Wealth Enhancement Group will have $25 billion in client assets by the end of the year. SVA Financial Group is comprised of SVA Wealth Management and SVA Trust Company, and offers wealth management, insurance, trust and tax services to high-net-worth individuals and families, along with investment and 401(k) plan services to small businesses. SVA Companies will retain its consulting and accounting businesses.

The acquisition marks Wealth Enhancement Group’s first move into the trust services sector, and is part of the firm’s long-term strategic objective of deepening its offerings for high-net-worth investors. The firm will be making trust services offerings available to its existing clients going forward, the firm said in a statement. The transaction also strengthens Wealth Enhancement Group’s centralized wealth management and portfolio management platform with the addition of a number of investment specialists from SVA.

The move “demonstrates Wealth Enhancement Group’s continued commitment to providing high-net-worth clients with holistic strategies to manage the complexity of their financial lives. The acquisition also demonstrates Wealth Enhancement Group’s continued execution on its strategy of building scale in key regions and further solidifies its position as a leading national wealth management and financial planning brand,” the firm said.

The SVA Wealth Management transaction is set to close on December 31. The acquisition of SVA Trust Company will close in the first quarter of 2021, subject to regulatory approval. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.