Carson Group CEO and founder Ron Carson is stepping down from his role to become chairman of the board. Burt White, managing partner and chief strategy officer, will transition into the CEO role.
The firm has not yet selected a replacement for White's previous role as chief strategy officer, a company spokesperson confirmed.
Carson will retain majority ownership in the firm and devote more time to “further his family’s humanitarian impact and champion initiatives such as feeding the hungry, providing clean water and supporting mental health,” according to the company. As chairman of the board, Carson’s focus will shift to the company’s future, while White will take the lead on further expanding the firm’s growth.
Carson founded the Omaha, Neb.-based RIA in 1983. The firm includes Carson Wealth, Carson Coaching and Carson Partners. It has $35.5 billion in AUM and serves 50,000 families through its advisory network of 150 partners.
Supported by Bain Capital, which took a minority stake in 2021, the Carson Group embarked on an intentional inorganic strategy in 2022. Previously, the Carson Group had taken minority stakes and facilitated tuck-in transactions for partner firms with a small in-house M&A team.
White served as chief investment officer at LPL Financial for 14 years before joining the Carson Group in 2022. Starting in 2017, White oversaw the transformation of LPL’s technology and became a leading figure in rebuilding its tech stack. He was closely associated with many rollouts of its ClientWorks platform.
Carson’s wealth management division previously had a long-time relationship with LPL, using it for custody and brokerage. But the firm had decided to move its affiliation to Cetera in early 2017. In 2018, Ron Carson announced he would drop his personal FINRA registration and would register a limited purpose broker/dealer to buy the legacy, commission-based assets from any of the 80-plus advisory firms in his Carson Group network that want to go fee-only.
In his role as chief strategy officer at Carson, White was responsible for the firm’s growth initiatives across both corporate and investment strategy and the transformation of its investment platform.