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Investment Banker·RIA Rollups

Scott Wetzel

Co-Founder & CEO at SkyView Partners

Wayzata, MN

SW
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Why they matter

Wetzel built the dominant specialty lender to the RIA space, giving him a real-time view of deal pricing, leverage terms, and lender appetite across the entire RIA M&A market.

Background

Scott Wetzel, J.D. is Co-Founder and CEO of SkyView Partners, a Wayzata, Minnesota-based specialty lender and investment bank focused exclusively on M&A financing, succession lending, and advisory transactions for RIAs and independent financial advisors. Before founding what became SkyView (launched in 2017 as Succession Lending), he spent 13 years as Senior Director of Wealth Management at Principal Financial Group and co-founded Locorr, a national alternative-investments distributor, in 2002. He holds a J.D. from William Mitchell College of Law and a BBA in Finance from the University of Notre Dame.

Notable deals

  • 2019
    Rebranded Succession Lending to SkyView Partners and expanded from pure lending into investment banking services for RIAs
  • 2020
    Led SkyView's acquisition of Grand Avenue Capital Partners, a Los Angeles broker-dealer, to add full investment-banking capability
  • 2024
    Launched the industry's first banking indices tracking national average interest rates on checking and savings accounts
  • 2024
    Announced SkyView Partners surpassed $1 billion funded in RIA/advisor loans across 385 transactions with zero loan loss

Call-prep brief

Background

  • Co-founder & CEO of SkyView Partners (formerly Succession Lending), founded 2017, HQ Wayzata, MN
  • 13 years at Principal Financial Group (Sr. Director, Wealth Management) before founding SkyView
  • J.D., William Mitchell College of Law; BBA Finance, University of Notre Dame

Current focus

  • Runs SkyView's dual lending + investment-banking platform (added via 2020 Grand Avenue Capital Partners acquisition) serving RIA M&A, succession, and debt-restructuring deals
  • Surpassed $1B funded / 385 transactions with a zero-loan-loss track record as of Oct 2024
  • Recently pushed into market-transparency initiatives (2024 banking indices on deposit rates)

What they care about

  • Credit quality/discipline in RIA lending — vocal about "efficient business models with strong cash flow" as the bar for financeable deals
  • Positioning SkyView as the structuring intermediary between buyers, sellers, and bank capital, not just a lender
  • Market transparency and depositor/advisor education (banking indices)

Recent moves

  • Q4 2023 loan applications up 66% YoY vs Q4 2022 ($965M+ YTD through Sept 2023)
  • Continued expansion of bank syndication capacity for loans over $30M

Potential sensitivities

  • SkyView's business model depends on partner banks (Bancorp, Coastal States, Pathward, Academy, First Internet) — he may be guarded discussing specific lender terms or pricing
  • As both lender and advisor to RIA sellers, conflicts-of-interest framing should be handled carefully

Questions to ask

  1. How has RIA valuation/leverage appetite among your bank partners shifted in 2025-2026 versus the 2023-2024 surge?
  2. What differentiates a "financeable" RIA today versus one your credit committee would decline?
  3. With $1B+ funded and zero losses, are you seeing new entrants compress lending margins, and how is SkyView responding?

Outreach draft

Subject
RIA lending market perspective — quick call?
Hi Scott, I've been following SkyView's growth — crossing $1B funded across 385 RIA loans with zero losses is a striking track record, and the banking indices work is a smart transparency play. We're evaluating opportunities in the RIA aggregation space and would value your read on where lender appetite and deal structures are heading, given your seat across hundreds of succession and M&A financings. Would you have 20 minutes in the next couple of weeks for a call? Happy to work around your schedule. Best, [Your Name]

Linked companies

Sources

Strongest evidencePage title9 public sourcesVerified2026-08-09How the grades work