About the Company

Wealth Enhancement Group is a Minnesota-based financial services firm that offers a team-based approach to wealth planning for individuals and businesses. Their advisory services include retirement planning, insurance and risk management, tax strategy, employee benefits, and business growth. Since 1997, Wealth Enhancement Group has offered clients the uniquely holistic Roundtable™ method of financial planning, which spans six areas of wealth management and involves a team of dedicated specialists and advisors. As of 2024, the firm had surpassed $100B in AUM, and in 2025, Forbes named Wealth Enhancement Group Advisory Services to its list of America’s top Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) firms. 

Challenges

As SVP of M&A at Wealth Enhancement Group, Dan Hogan had two primary responsibilities. The first was to keep deals moving through the pipeline from LOI to post-close. The second was to put the right tools, technology, processes, and people in place to support that pipeline.

Those tools and processes, which included Excel spreadsheets, disparate data rooms, and reports in PowerPoint decks, worked well when Wealth Enhancement Group completed the occasional, straightforward acquisition. Once the firm decided to pursue a higher volume of more complex transactions, however, those tools could no longer carry the load.  

“These manual tools and unintegrated templates made it much harder for us to execute on an accelerated timeline,” said Dan. He recalled one deal in which the manual diligence process significantly slowed team decision-making. Different stakeholders were working off of different information, some of which was outdated, and the frustration and confusion led the team to pause and reconsider whether to move ahead with a purchase agreement.

Negative Business Impacts

Misaligned Team Due to Lack of Pipeline Transparency: With more active deals in process, the M&A team struggled to piece together a full picture of their pipeline. As a result, it was difficult to report progress to leadership or identify bottlenecks and risk factors early. 

Slowed Deal Velocity and Decision-Making: With deal information siloed across spreadsheets and slide decks, stakeholder groups worked from different versions of key documents, leading to uncertainty and stalled follow-through. 

Diligence Managed by Hand: Because diligence tasks were spread across multiple documents, they had to be updated manually, a time-consuming process that invited human error. Items sometimes fell through the cracks, tasks were duplicated, and incorrect data was reported to leadership. 

“We were spending a lot of time updating manual trackers or exporting information for certain subsets of our group.” - Dan Hogan, SVP of M&A

Solution

Knowing his team needed a “centralized hub” for scattered deal documents and data, Dan began researching software solutions to support the entire M&A lifecycle, especially the due diligence stage. When he discovered DealRoom, he realized it could dramatically improve how the firm managed transactions. 

Dan pitched DealRoom to company leadership, and they were immediately on board. As a technology-forward firm, Wealth Enhancement Group understood the importance of having the right software to enable strategy and processes. “By showing time saved, easier access to information, and doing more deals quicker, it was easy to make that business case,” said Dan. 

During a recent deal, the DealRoom difference became apparent. The transaction was larger and more complex than average, and required both internal and external resources to manage diligence. With DealRoom, the entire diligence stage went far more smoothly. “The flexibility that DealRoom offers to bring in new users, whether they're within the company or an external consultant, allowed us to get all the necessary resources on board,” said Dan. 

Why DealRoom?

Flexibility and Ease of Use: The more complex the deal, the more parties are involved. Wealth Enhancement Group needed a platform that both internal and external stakeholders could access quickly and easily, with appropriate permission levels. 

Real-Time Deal Information: Manual Excel updates wasted significant time and added friction to the diligence stage. A platform with automation and real-time data updates was a must if the team was going to complete deals on an accelerated timeline. 

Full Pipeline Visibility: To deliver on a more aggressive acquisition strategy, Wealth Enhancement Group would need a single high-level view of everything in the deal pipeline. 

“I can see where deals are in our pipeline. I can see what diligence findings are open. I can see where the integration planning is all in one place.” - Dan Hogan, SVP of M&A

Outcomes

Shorter Time to Close: Deals are no longer stalled during the due diligence stage, and stakeholders have real-time access to deal data, enabling them to make smarter, faster strategic decisions.  

Support for Scale and Complexity: With DealRoom in place, Wealth Enhancement Group can pursue its growth strategy of completing a larger number of transactions at a higher level of complexity. 

A Single Source of Truth: DealRoom transformed Wealth Enhancement Group’s acquisition process from Excel lists and disconnected virtual data rooms (VDRs) to a single operating system for M&A, putting deal data directly at the fingertips of every stakeholder. 

Reduction in Manual Work: By eliminating version-control issues with Excel trackers and manual spreadsheet updates, Wealth Enhancement Group freed up its M&A team to focus on higher-value work, such as building seller relationships and identifying strategic opportunities.