Edelman Financial Engines — M&A Tenant Migration & M365 Governance
How Summit became the trusted migration and governance partner for one of the nation's largest independent wealth management firms — handling every acquisition migration with precision while simultaneously hardening their Microsoft 365 environment.
A multi-year partnership built on flawless execution.
Edelman Financial Engines, one of the largest independent RIA firms in the United States, engaged Summit Migrations as its dedicated M&A migration and M365 governance partner. With frequent acquisitions and strict SEC/FINRA oversight, the firm required flawless execution and trusted technical stewardship.
Summit now manages every acquisition migration, all compliance data preparation, and ongoing security remediation across the tenant — a relationship built entirely on results.
An active acquirer with sensitive data and strict oversight.
Edelman Financial Engines serves hundreds of thousands of clients nationwide and operates an active M&A strategy, acquiring independent advisory practices and integrating their Microsoft 365 tenants into a unified environment. Each acquisition introduces a new tenant, its own IT footprint, and sensitive financial records requiring precise handling and regulatory care.
Four recurring challenges across every acquisition.
Zero Margin for Error
Financial data including tax records, investment documentation, and PII is governed by SEC and FINRA. Any misstep carries compliance exposure that the firm cannot afford.
Record Center Requirements
All client data must land in a Salesforce-integrated Record Center, requiring structured metadata preparation and ID reconciliation before ingestion.
Continuous M&A Activity
The firm acquires new advisory practices frequently — each requiring a full tenant-to-tenant migration on a defined timeline.
Governance Gaps Between Migrations
Summit discovered recurring security risks between migrations: excessive external sharing, orphaned permissions, and unmanaged admin access requiring active remediation.
The M&A migration pipeline.
Every acquisition follows a high-stakes pipeline. Summit performs full T2T migration — email, OneDrive, SharePoint Online, and file shares — then constructs the Meta File: a master spreadsheet mapping each financial document to its Financial Planner, District Office, Salesforce ID, and compliance record number. This enables compliant ingestion into the firm's Salesforce-integrated Record Center under SEC and FINRA requirements.
Four service domains under one engagement.
- M&A Tenant-to-Tenant Migration — ShareGate-driven, wave-based migrations with full audit trails and delta syncs
- Record Center Data Preparation — metadata enrichment, ID reconciliation, and compliance packaging via Meta File
- Security & Governance Advisory — external sharing remediation, admin access cleanup, ongoing tenant hardening
- M365 Platform Administration — SharePoint builds, permissions management, Power Automate solutions, and internal content migrations
Security and governance work between migrations.
External Sharing Audit
PowerShell scripts provided full tenant visibility, resulting in a firm-wide lockdown of external sharing and elimination of long-standing exposure.
Site Collection Admin Cleanup
Removed former vendor and contractor admin access across the tenant, eliminating significant compliance risk that had persisted undetected.
Internal Home Folder Migration
Retired on-premises home folders and standardized OneDrive for all advisors, eliminating legacy infrastructure and improving accessibility.
SharePoint Archiving Initiative
Implemented SharePoint Premium archiving to control storage costs and reduce content sprawl across the tenant.
A repeatable five-step pipeline for every acquisition.
- Pre-migration assessment — full tenant inventory and identity mapping
- Pilot migration — validate mappings and environmental nuances before full rollout
- Wave-based migration — structured departmental waves with delta syncs and validation gates
- Meta File construction — integrate with Salesforce identifiers for Record Center ingestion
- Source archiving and closeout — final compliance validation and data retirement
Zero data loss. Active partnership. Renewed trust.
- Zero data loss across all acquisition migrations
- Record Center pipeline standardized and fully operational
- Tenant security posture significantly strengthened
- Legacy storage eliminated and storage spending optimized
- Ongoing engagement renewed — Summit remains the firm's trusted M365 partner
What this engagement demonstrated.
Regulated-industry migrations demand airtight execution and a partner who understands the compliance stakes.
Compliance workflows like Record Center ingestion must be engineered strategically, not bolted on after migration.
Ongoing governance work between migrations prevents the security debt that accumulates in active M&A environments.
Multi-year partnerships built on results — not contracts — are the most reliable model for organizations with continuous migration needs.