Orion Announces Agreement to Acquire Summit Wealth Systems; Reed Colley to join as President of Orion Advisor Technology

OMAHA, Neb., & SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Orion, the premier provider of transformative wealthtech solutions for financial advisors and the enterprise firms that serve them, announced today a definitive agreement to acquire Summit Wealth Systems, an award-winning advisor technology provider. When the transaction closes in early 2025, Summit’s CEO, Reed Colley, will join Orion as President of Orion Advisor Technology, reporting to Orion CEO Natalie Wolfsen.

With 25 years of deep industry experience, Reed is the co-founder and CEO of Summit Wealth Systems. Prior to launching Summit, Reed founded and served as CEO of Black Diamond Performance Reporting. He founded the company in 2003, creating an innovative wealth platform that was agile and responsive to the advisor with user interface driven, graphical reports. Reed also founded calendar analytics platform Copilot, Do Something Great Today and FlightPath Inc. Reed holds a Bachelor of Science with degrees in Engineering and Economics from Vanderbilt University.

“We are thrilled to welcome the Summit team, Summit clients and Reed to Orion in early 2025. Summit's powerful software will further enhance our unified, flexible tech ecosystem,” said Natalie Wolfsen, CEO of Orion. “Reed is a visionary, innovative, highly experienced leader with a deep commitment to helping wealth businesses, financial advisors and investors thrive in today’s dynamic environment. With Reed and Summit on board, Orion will accelerate our growth and innovation, supporting financial advisors of all sizes and business models with pioneering, investor-centric technology. Together, we have a profound understanding of the unique challenges today’s advisors face, including the complexities of integrating disparate tech stacks and how to deliver personalized client experiences at scale.”

Reed added, “I couldn’t be more excited to join forces with Orion in 2025. I have long admired Orion’s kinship with advisors and spirit of innovation. The firm is unmatched in offering advisors the best solutions that support their independence, streamline their workflow and help them build meaningful relationships with investors—all in a flexible, unified, seamless wealthtech experience.”

Orion clients and partners can meet and hear from Reed at Orion Ascent 2025, held Feb. 3-6 in Orlando.

Summit, a software company co-founded by Reed, provides modern, consolidated, and intuitive client reporting and portfolio management to large registered investment advisors (RIAs). Launched in 2019 to elevate technology for modern wealth management advisors who want deeper relationships with their clients, Summit’s award-winning, client-centric portfolio management software aligns clients, advisors and enterprises around a unified, highly personalized experience.

Reed, along with Summit’s 12 employees, will join Orion upon the close of the transaction, and Summit will become a brand entity of Orion. The transaction is expected to close in early 2025 following the completion of customary closing conditions. Further transaction details will not be disclosed.

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About Orion

Orion is a premier provider of the tech-enabled fiduciary process that transforms the advisor-client relationship by enabling financial advisors to Prospect, Plan, Invest, and Achieve within a single, connected, technology-driven experience. Combined, our brand entities, Orion Advisor Tech, Orion Portfolio Solutions, Brinker Capital Investments, Redtail Technology, and Orion OCIO create a complete offering that empowers firms to attract new clients seamlessly, connect goals more meaningfully to investment strategies and outcomes, and ultimately track progress toward each investor’s unique definition of financial success. Orion services $4.7 trillion in assets under administration and $72.5 billion of wealth management platform assets (as of September 30, 2024) and supports over six million technology accounts and thousands of independent advisory firms. Today, 17 out of the Top 20 Barron’s RIA firms¹ rely on Orion’s technology to power their businesses and win for investors. Learn more at Orion.com.

¹ Source: 2024 Top 100 RIA Firms, Barron's, 2024.

About Summit Wealth Systems

Summit has built a powerful, award-winning wealth tech platform that enables advisors to focus on guiding their clients toward a life of abundance while growing their businesses. Summit's design-forward approach counters complexity by streamlining and automating the work advisors do every day. The platform combines unified data with an elegant experience that advisors and clients love. Summit won 2022, 2023 and 2024 "Wealthies" industry awards for Disruptor, Innovation and Client Portal categories. For more information, visit summitwealth.io.