Firm Overview and National Footprint

FORT WORTH, TEXAS — VERTESS was formed by a group of results-oriented professionals as an alternative to traditional M&A firms and investment banks. Founded in 2014 according to PitchBook data, the firm has grown into a national healthcare M&A advisory practice headquartered at 600 East Rosedale Street in Fort Worth, Texas. The firm maintains offices across 11 cities: Dallas-Fort Worth, Palm Springs, Newport Beach, Tucson, Denver, Durango, Austin, El Paso, New Jersey, New York City, Pittsburgh, and Boston—a geographic spread that gives it coverage across the major healthcare markets in the country.

The structural principle that distinguishes VERTESS from many competitors is its requirement that every Managing Director has had executive experience in either launching, managing, or successfully exiting a healthcare company. This is not a marketing claim but a hiring criterion. The result is an advisory team that can speak to healthcare founders as peers who have sat in the same chair—built companies, managed P&Ls, navigated regulatory compliance, recruited clinical staff, and ultimately sold or transitioned their businesses. PitchBook data shows the firm has approximately 16 professionals and has been involved in 101 total deals across sell-side advisory, buy-side advisory, valuations, and consulting engagements.

VERTESS’s service offerings include sell-side and buy-side representation, sell-side valuations, buy-side valuations, and value-building consulting. The firm’s healthcare verticals span a remarkably broad range: behavioral health, intellectual and developmental disabilities, autism services, DME, pharmacies, home health, homecare, hospice, revenue cycle management, medical devices, physician practices, urgent care, dental, veterinary, health IT, healthcare staffing, ambulatory surgery centers, and medical transport. This breadth is enabled by the specialist expertise of individual Managing Directors, each of whom covers a defined vertical.

VERTESS’s requirement that every Managing Director have operator-level healthcare experience is a structural differentiator that allows the firm to position itself as the advisory shop that has “sat in your seat and across the table”—a claim that resonates with ABA practice owners who built mission-driven companies and want an advisor who understands what that means.

Axial Recognition and Deal Activity

In May 2024, VERTESS was named the number one lower middle market investment bank for Q1 2024 by Axial, a private deal network serving professionals who own, advise, and invest in North American companies. The recognition came during a quarter in which Axial saw 2,534 total sell-side deals marketed on its platform, with healthcare as the industry with the highest pursuit rate. Then in October 2024, VERTESS received a second Axial distinction: it was named the number one sell-side M&A advisor on Axial’s 2024 Healthcare Top 50 list, confirming its position as the most active healthcare advisory firm on what is one of the primary deal-sourcing platforms for lower middle market transactions.

The Axial rankings are significant for the ABA market because Axial is the platform where many lower-middle-market healthcare deals are first marketed to potential buyers. For ABA practice owners whose companies fall in the $2–$15 million EBITDA range, the advisory firm’s ability to generate buyer interest on platforms like Axial directly impacts the competitiveness of the process and the ultimate transaction value. VERTESS’s top ranking on this platform suggests a volume of deal marketing and buyer engagement that translates to real competitive advantage for its sell-side clients.

VERTESS has also demonstrated consistent deal execution in behavioral health and I/DD specifically. In November 2024, the firm announced the sale of Momentum, a Maine-based behavioral health provider offering shared living and other services to individuals with I/DD, to Living Innovations Home Care. The firm’s typical sales process runs six to ten months, during which the VERTESS team manages valuation, marketing, negotiation, and closing.

Rachel Boynton: ABA and I/DD Practice Lead

Rachel Boynton joined VERTESS in 2018 as a Managing Director and was promoted to Partner in July 2022. Her background exemplifies the firm’s operator-first hiring philosophy: before joining VERTESS, she co-founded a multi-state human services and healthcare organization—Lifeshare, an I/DD services business—where she oversaw operations, finance, human resources, and quality assurance. At VERTESS, she provides M&A advisory and consulting services focused on the I/DD, behavioral health, and ABA markets.

Boynton has become one of the most frequently quoted advisory professionals on ABA valuations in trade media. In a May 2023 Behavioral Health Business article titled “Autism Therapy Is the ‘Perfect Place’ to Invest as Multiples, Headwinds Decline,” she described the ABA space as recession-proof and noted the huge growth potential in the sector. She has also appeared on the Element RCM podcast specifically discussing the process of selling an ABA practice—making her one of the few investment bankers producing advisory content directly addressed to ABA practice owner-operators rather than to PE sponsors or strategic buyers.

Dave Turgeon serves as Managing Director, leading the firm’s I/DD and autism transaction practice from the Boston area. Turgeon’s career includes CEO and COO roles at PE-backed companies focused on building value through acquisition, a track record that has involved acquiring hundreds of companies and investing billions of dollars. He is best known in the I/DD space for running the M&A efforts at Civitas Solutions leading up to their successful IPO in 2014. He began focusing on behavioral health approximately twelve years ago based on a family member’s connection to the sector. His son, Jack Turgeon, also serves as a Director at VERTESS, holding an MBA from Babson College and focusing on behavioral health transactions.

I/DD and ABA Transaction Track Record

In Q1 2024, Dave Turgeon and Jack Turgeon led efforts on two significant I/DD transactions that demonstrated VERTESS’s execution capabilities in the disability services space. Gold Medal Home Health, a New Jersey-based I/DD services provider, was acquired by Abound Health, a North Carolina-based provider supporting individuals with diverse needs. North Valley Developmental Services, a California I/DD company, was acquired by Merakey, a Pennsylvania-based national provider of services in mental health and autism. Jack Turgeon commented that assisting companies providing these services is an extremely rewarding process and emphasized the importance of establishing the right partnership to keep critical services in place.

The firm’s I/DD deal activity is directly relevant to the ABA market for two reasons. First, many I/DD service providers also deliver ABA therapy as part of their service continuum, meaning VERTESS’s I/DD transactions often involve companies with ABA components. Second, the buyer universe for I/DD and ABA transactions overlaps significantly—PE firms like Avesi Partners, Webster Equity Partners, and others maintain portfolio companies that span both I/DD and ABA, and the advisory firm that understands both verticals can position sellers more effectively for cross-sector interest.

For ABA practice owners evaluating advisory options, VERTESS offers a distinctive value proposition: an operator-background advisory team, the number one Axial ranking in healthcare M&A, a dedicated ABA/I/DD practice with both Boynton and the Turgeon team, and a firm culture that explicitly addresses the emotional dimensions of selling a healthcare company built around patient care. The firm’s messaging—“it’s personal, and you only get one shot to do it right”—reflects an understanding that for many ABA founders, the sale of their practice is not just a financial transaction but a legacy decision.

VERTESS’s combination of Axial’s top rankings, operator-background Managing Directors, a dedicated ABA/I/DD practice led by Rachel Boynton and the Turgeon team, and a firm culture built around the emotional weight of selling a healthcare company positions it as a serious competitor in the lower middle market of ABA M&A.

Looking Ahead

VERTESS enters 2026 with momentum that few healthcare advisory firms in the lower middle market can match: back-to-back Axial number one rankings, a growing office footprint across 11 cities, and a behavioral health practice with named deal execution in the I/DD and autism-adjacent sectors. The firm’s 10-plus-year track record of publishing VERTESSPress—its biweekly newsletter covering healthcare M&A trends—has also built an audience of healthcare company owners who encounter the firm’s brand long before they begin thinking about a transaction.

The ABA market dynamics entering 2026 favor VERTESS’s positioning. As deal volume recovers and PE-backed platforms resume tuck-in acquisition activity, the demand for sell-side advisory in the lower middle market will intensify. ABA companies generating $3–$10 million in EBITDA represent the volume center of this activity, and VERTESS’s Axial rankings confirm that it is already the most active advisory firm marketing healthcare deals on the platform where many of these transactions originate.

For ABA practice owners who built their companies out of a clinical mission and are approaching a transition decision, VERTESS’s operator-first culture offers a rare alignment of values. The firm’s Managing Directors have lived the experience of building and selling healthcare companies, and their advisory process reflects that history. Whether the right outcome is a full sale, a recapitalization with a PE partner, or a strategic merger with another provider, VERTESS’s ABA and I/DD team—led by Boynton and the Turgeons—brings both the deal execution capability and the sector-specific empathy that the transaction demands.

AT A GLANCE

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