Affiliated Advisors Named Winner of the Independent, Integrated Growth Platforms Award in Wealth Management's 2026 Wealthies Industry Awards Program

Recognition honors Affiliated Advisors' Equity Uplift program, which helps independent advisors build more scalable, valuable, and succession-ready businesses

NEW YORK, Sept. 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Affiliated Advisors, a multiple-award winning and leading advisor service and support platform, announced today that it has won the Independent, Integrated Growth Platforms category at the 2026 Wealthies, presented by WealthManagement. This is the third time in four years that Affiliated Advisors has won this highly competitive and respected category

The award recognizes Affiliated Advisors' Equity Uplift program, which combines strategic consulting, operational support, and scalable infrastructure to help advisors increase the long-term enterprise value of their practices. By centralizing support around technology, people, and process, the program is designed to move advisors from lifestyle practices toward growth-oriented, team-based businesses, while improving recurring revenue, margin, and client experience along the way, all while preserving advisor independence.

"Too many great advisors get stuck running a practice instead of building a business," said Trisha Qualy, Managing Partner of Affiliated Advisors "They're excellent with clients, but they've never had the infrastructure or the roadmap to turn that into something with real, transferable value. Equity Uplift exists to close that gap, and this recognition validates what we've believed from day one, which is that independence and enterprise value go hand in hand if developed with intent and focused purpose."

Since launching, Equity Uplift has engaged its advisor participants with the program to move practice valuations from roughly 2.0–2.5x revenue toward 3.5–4.0x through stronger margins, recurring revenue, and operational leverage. Participants have also reported greater clarity around growth strategy and reduced reliance on any single advisor, hallmarks of a more durable, transferable business.

The Wealthies recognize the individuals, firms, and technology leaders driving innovation across the wealth management industry, as judged by a panel of industry experts. This year's program featured nearly 1,500 submissions from over 500 companies, making the Wealthies the largest and most prestigious award program in the wealth management space.

About Affiliated Advisors

Affiliated Advisors is an award-winning growth platform dedicated to empowering financial advisors to build enterprise-ready firms with enduring equity value. Through business consulting, M&A and succession planning expertise, along with technology enablement, and advisor development programs, Affiliated Advisors equips independent advisors with the resources and strategies required to grow, compete and succeed in a rapidly evolving wealth management landscape. www.AffiliatedAdvisors.com 

Securities and investment advisory services offered through Osaic Wealth, Inc. member FINRA/SIPC. Osaic Wealth is separately owned and other entities and/or marketing names, products or services referenced here are independent of Osaic Wealth.

The Independent, Integrated Growth Platforms award issued by Wealthmanagement.com on 9/10/26 for the previous 18 months was awarded for a new initiative, product, program, platform, or enhancement to an existing platform/product that provides independent RIAs and/or broker-dealer, representatives with a full-suite of business, technology, marketing, compliance and practice management resources designed to provide scale, convenience, increase capacity, drive business value, and provide cost-savings to run better businesses. Initiatives can include areas such as new technology applications, practice management programs, marketing tools, advisor educational materials, industry events, wealth management products and services, community, connections, and succession planning resources. Affiliated Advisors was nominated for the recognition. Criteria used to determine the winner(s) includes both quantitative measures such as specific feature set, AUM goals, usage, adoption, scope, scale, and advisor survey scores; as well as qualitative measures such as innovation, creativity, and new methods of deployment. Ten firms were considered for this honor and 1 was selected. No fee was paid for the nomination, receipt, or promotion of the award. Third-party ratings are no guarantee of future investment success and do not ensure that a client or prospective client will experience a higher level of performance or results. These ratings should not be construed as an endorsement of the advisor by any client nor are they representative of any one client's evaluation.

SOURCE Affiliated Advisors