\n Bluespring, Robertson Stephens, Cetera and Aprio each close acquisitions as independent advisory firms weigh their next chapter.\n <\/p>\n
Four wealth management<\/a> acquisitions announced on November 3, 2026, offer a sharply varied picture of why independent advisory practices are selling and what they expect in return.<\/p>\n The deals span succession planning, geographic expansion, next-generation talent development and the integration of tax and investment advice under one roof.<\/p>\n The activity lands against a backdrop of record-pace dealmaking. Wealth management M&A was on track for its busiest year on record as of mid-2026<\/a>, with deal volume approaching 500 transactions, according to reporting by InvestmentNews.<\/p>\n Bluespring Wealth acquires Whitaker-Myers<\/p>\n The largest deal by combined platform assets came from Austin, Texas-based Bluespring Wealth, which announced the acquisition of Whitaker-Myers Wealth Managers, a Wooster, Ohio-based firm overseeing approximately $920 million in client assets.<\/p>\n The addition brings Bluespring’s Ohio River Valley platform – established in July 2026 through the combination of Joule Financial and Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory – to $2.4 billion in client assets and 44 team members across offices in Ohio, Kentucky and South Carolina.<\/p>\n Whitaker-Myers traces its community roots to the Whitaker-Myers Insurance Agency, which has served families in Wooster since 1869. Matthew Harris and John-Mark Young launched the wealth management practice roughly a decade ago with two advisors and built it to more than 20 team members, with an emphasis on debt-free living, disciplined saving and planning grounded in faith and family.<\/p>\n For the firm’s co-founders, the deciding factor was finding a buyer committed to developing the next generation of advisors rather than simply absorbing existing assets.<\/p>\n “We wanted a partner who would help us keep doing that on a bigger scale,” said John-Mark Young, president and co-chief investment officer of Whitaker-Myers. John Ritter, CFP, CFS, executive managing director of Bluespring Wealth \u2013 River Valley, cited a shared belief in personal, transparent and trust<\/a>-based client relationships as the foundation of the deal.<\/p>\n Bluespring Wealth is affiliated with Kestra Holdings and operates as a registered investment advisor (RIA), a structure in which advisory firms are registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission<\/a> and operate under a fiduciary standard, meaning they are legally required to act in clients’ best interests.<\/p>\n Robertson Stephens expands in Colorado with ALTIUS Financial<\/p>\n San Francisco-based Robertson Stephens Wealth Management, LLC, an independent SEC-registered investment advisor with more than $11 billion in assets under management as of November 2026, announced that Denver-based ALTIUS Financial has joined the firm, establishing its fourth office in Colorado.<\/p>\n ALTIUS was founded by Michael Williams, a certified financial planner with more than 38 years of wealth management experience. He is joined by fellow CFP and owner Taylor Dennis, along with team members Jennifer Kreger and Krescent Williams.<\/p>\n The practice built its reputation on comprehensive financial planning<\/a> and its proprietary Empowered Future Program, a client framework centered on building, defending and growing capital over time.<\/p>\n “Robertson Stephens shares that philosophy and provides the resources, expertise, and capabilities to take our client experience to the next level,” Williams said. Raj Bhattacharyya, CEO of Robertson Stephens, described the ALTIUS team’s approach as directly aligned with the firm’s own planning-centered model. Robertson Stephens crossed $10 billion in assets under management in October 2026, according to the firm.<\/p>\n Cetera acquires The SFI Group in advisor succession deal<\/p>\n Cetera Financial Group<\/a>, Inc. announced the acquisition of The SFI Group, a Minneapolis-based wealth management practice managing approximately $200 million in assets under advisement, led by founder and lead advisor Terry Sonnenfeld.<\/p>\n With the transaction, Sonnenfeld, his wife and office manager Tracy Sonnenfeld, and their two-person support staff join Cetera Planning Partners, Cetera’s national employee-advisor RIA with approximately $20 billion in assets under advisement as of August 31, 2026.<\/p>\n The deal is explicitly framed as a succession solution for Sonnenfeld, who began his career in 1992 and has built a three-generation family practice in the Twin Cities. Critically, the firm was already Cetera-affiliated, and staying within that network, rather than moving clients to an outside buyer was the deciding factor.<\/p>\n “We never wanted to leave Cetera,” Tracy Sonnenfeld said. “Our clients don’t face a lot of changes, and that matters to us as much as it does to them.”<\/p>\n Kevin Conard, head of Cetera Planning Partners, noted that the deal also gives Cetera Planning Partners a physical advisor presence in Minnesota for the first time. Advisor retirements remain the largest addressable market for RIA acquisitions in terms of assets under management<\/a>, according to research from Cerulli Associates cited by InvestmentNews, and the SFI Group deal is a textbook illustration of how succession pressure is channeling deals toward platforms that can offer continuity rather than disruption.<\/p>\n Aprio acquires Garner Asset Management<\/p>\n The structurally most distinctive deal of the four came from Aprio, the 20th largest business advisory and accounting firm in the US according to Accounting Today, which announced the acquisition of Garner Asset Management Corporation – a fee-only, SEC-registered investment advisor based in Plano, Texas. Effective November 2, 2026, Garner joins Aprio Wealth Management, which now represents approximately $6.1 billion in assets under advisement as of September 30, 2026.<\/p>\n Founded in 1998 by Robert S. Garner, the firm advises high-net-worth individuals, retirees, holders of concentrated stock positions and multigenerational families. Garner joins Aprio as a partner.<\/p>\n The deal marks Aprio Wealth Management’s first standalone wealth management acquisition and establishes the firm’s presence in the Dallas-Fort Worth market, adding to offices already in Austin, Houston and San Antonio. It follows Aprio’s earlier RIA acquisition of Prism Financial Group in late 2025.<\/p>\n The model is explicitly integrative: Aprio brings accounting, advisory, tax and legal capabilities together with investment management under one roof, a proposition that differs meaningfully from pure-play RIA aggregators competing for the same pool of sellers. “Like Aprio, Robert and his team believe clients are best served when financial planning and accounting work together,” said Keith Greenwald, CEO of Aprio Wealth Management.<\/p>\n The relentless pace of RIA acquisitions has seen acquirers of varying structures compete for independent advisory practices<\/a>, from private equity<\/a>-backed rollups to accounting firm platforms like Aprio. DeVoe & Company advised Garner Asset Management Corporation on the transaction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bluespring, Robertson Stephens, Cetera and Aprio each close acquisitions as independent advisory firms weigh their next chapter. 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