College Savings Makeovers

Private equity-backed hybrid RIA Trilogy Financial Services has acquired a $1bn shop with a niche serving pilots and aviation professionals.

Trilogy said Thursday it has snapped up Mountain Capital Investment Advisors, located in Westminster in Colorado’s Denver-Boulder corridor. The terms of the transaction, which marks Irvine, Calif.-based Trilogy’s largest acquisition of the year, were not disclosed.

Mountain Capital is led by chief executive Brandt Burns and vice president Michelle Burns, a husband-and-wife duo who co-founded the firm in 2011 alongside founder emeritus Robert Loesch. Brandt Burns is a US Marine Corps veteran who previously worked as an advisor with Morgan Stanley Smith Barney for more than a decade. Before that, he was a commercial pilot at the now-defunct regional airline Atlantic Coast Airlines (later known as Independence Air). Michelle Burns worked for United Airlines for 14 years.

The firm provides financial planning to individual, family and small business clients with a focus on people involved in the aviation industry. It also offers tax preparation services and consulting services for pilots and airline professionals.

Brandt Burns stated that the deal allows Mountain Capital to retain its brand, leadership team, advisors and staff. The company will become Trilogy’s eleventh office and second location in Colorado.

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Trilogy Financial, formerly part of the National Planning Holdings network bought by LPL Financial in August, says it will affiliate with the independent broker-dealer. The Huntington Beach, California-based group has some 150 financial advisors and over $2 billion in client assets.

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