YourStake Acquires First Affirmative and Relaunches Advisory Firm as Formative, the Home for Modern Values-Based Advisors

The acquisition pairs First Affirmative’s 35+ years of operational and investment infrastructure with YourStake’s leading technology to better support the community of advisors through a comprehensive service platform

YourStake, the leading technology platform for values-based financial advisors, today announced the acquisition of First Affirmative, the pioneering RIA of the values-based advisor community. The firm is relaunching under the new DBA (Doing Business As) name, Formative.

Formative serves advisors through a combination of deep asset management capabilities, community infrastructure, and operational support. By adding YourStake’s technology, Formative is enhancing its existing investment offerings and building out a tech-powered team to support advisors across financial planning, operations, marketing, tax, estate, and private impact investing.

“Modern advisors strive to serve the needs of their clients across their financial lives, and we heard demand from our community for a holistic partner in that mission,” said YourStake co-founder Gabe Rissman.

YourStake was founded in 2019 to help financial advisors implement values-aligned investing at scale, beginning with impact analytics and personalized portfolio construction, then expanding into a broader AI-driven platform in response to evolving advisor needs.

“YourStake matured in two directions — deep and broad,” said Rissman. “We went deep in values-based investing with our collaboration with First Affirmative while building technology for advisors who wanted to offer the highest degree of personalization. And we went broad because advisors want more than a point solution. They need something that works across the full context of the client relationship.”

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YourStake continues to operate as an independent technology company serving the broader advisory market, with an information barrier between YourStake and Formative. “Formative is our most comprehensive implementation of the YourStake platform,” said co-founder Patrick Reed. “Every workflow we refine through Formative makes the technology sharper for every advisor using YourStake.”

First Affirmative, one of the earliest adopters of YourStake, spent 35+ years developing investment programs and deep values-aligned portfolio management capabilities for financial advisors and their clients. Managing nearly $1B in assets, the firm built its reputation on rigorous investment discipline and a shared philosophy that forms the foundation of its advisor network.

The two firms have already partnered to deliver VADIS, a values-aligned direct indexing solution that has tripled over the past two years to $330M in AUM — a collaboration that built the conviction and trust behind today’s acquisition.

“First Affirmative created a community with real integrity and mission focus,” Rissman said. “Advisors consistently told us they wanted to preserve the culture but needed more modern infrastructure, more done-for-you support, and a cohesive platform to help them grow.”

According to George Gay, who has led First Affirmative as CEO since 1986, the transaction delivers exactly that. “We haven’t wavered from the mission that has always defined this community,” Gay said. “Now, we’ve enhanced our ability to deliver on it, giving advisors the modern infrastructure and support they need to grow without losing the investment expertise, culture, and values that brought them here.”

The new name carries the legacy forward. “Formative is First Affirmative with fewer letters, but it also captures what we’re building,” said Gabe Rissman, co-founder of YourStake. “The advisors we serve build deep relationships rooted in their clients’ formative experiences. And the capital they steward can be transformative.”

To learn more about Formative, visit- https://formativefinancial.com