RBC lands fourth UBS team in 3 months

RBC snags fourth team from UBS in 3 months: Advisor Moves

July 11, 2025 2:26 PM

RBC Wealth Management continues to provide happy hunting grounds for UBS advisor teams.

This week, RBC announced the recruitment of its fourth advisory team from UBS in less than three months. Also, RIA aggregators like Sanctuary Wealth, Beacon Pointe and Carson Group show no signs of slowing down with M&A deals.

Read about it below.

RBC goes to UBS again, pulls a $1.7B team

RBC Wealth Management has gone back to the UBS well for another large advisory team.

Hudson River Wealth Management has joined Royal Bank of Canada's U.S. wealth management division in Westchester, New York. The eight-member group had formerly managed $1.7 billion at UBS.

The team consists of the managing director and financial advisor Steven Solomon, the financial advisor and portfolio manager Lauren Konstantin, senior vice president and financial advisor Kevin Bertoncin, senior vice president and financial advisor Roger Matles, senior financial associate Leonard Solomon, senior business associate Izabella Wszolek, senior registered client associate Peggy Athanasatos and registered client associate Elena Tashlitsky.

RBC Wealth Management opened its Westchester branch in late June. The moves comes as RBC Wealth Management continues building out its division for ultrahigh net worth clients.

RBC has been pulling some large teams from UBS in recent months. Last month, it announced it recruited the nine-member Centennial Wealth Management Group from UBS Wealth Management USA, where it had managed $1.1 billion in client assets. The team will operate out of RBC's branch in Purchase, New York, about an hour north of Manhattan.

In May, it announced it had pulled over an eight-person team formerly overseeing $1.6 billion at UBS. The group, officially named the Dalton Bahney and Treinen Wealth Management Group, will work out of RBC's offices in Boise, Idaho. Two weeks before, RBC announced it had recruited the Austin and Smith Wealth Management Group to its branch in Syracuse, New York. The team formerly managed roughly $500 million at UBS.

UBS reported in April that it has seen a 3% year-over-year decline in its U.S. headcount, which is now just under 6,000. UBS Chief Financial Officer Todd Tuckner has said that recent changes to broker compensation, made in keeping with the firm's cost-cutting goals, could lead to an increase in broker departures in 2025.

RBC had just over 2,200 financial advisors overseeing $640 billion in client assets by the end of April.

LPL recruits $870M ex-Baird team to its employee channel

A pair of wealth managers is leaving Baird to join LPL Financial's Linsco unit, its channel for direct-employee advisors.

Charli Narmi and Theresa Rynaski have founded The Narmi Group Investment Management in Omaha, Nebraska at Linsco by LPL Financial, the firm's channel for employee advisors. They had previously been at Robert W. Baird and had roughly $870 million under management.

Narmi and Rynaski have worked together for two decades. Their clients include young professionals, nonprofit groups, retirees and people nearing retirement.

Narmi started his career at Smith Barney in 2002 and moved to Baird 10 years later. Rynaski started her career in 1993 and later moved to Smith Barney in 1998. She joined Baird in 2012.

LPL reported in April that it ended the first quarter of 2025 with 29,493 advisors. That figure is up nearly 29% year over year largely because of a series of large acquisitions.

Janney pulls $470M advisory team from Raymond James

Janney Montgomery Scott is adding to its presence in Maryland with an advisory team recruited from Raymond James.

Griffin Wealth Management is joining Janney in its office in Hunt Valley, Maryland. The five-member team, led by financial advisor and senior vice president Kevin Doyle, had previously managed $470 million in client assets at Raymond James.

Coming with Doyle are the wealth planning associate Kali Lambert, senior registered private client associate Diane Allen, senior registered private client associate Kerry Ahern and private client associate Conor Doyle. Doyle, who will also be the branch manager of Janney's Hunt Valley office, has 37 years of industry experience. He spent 20 years at Smith Barney, which Morgan Stanley acquired a majority stake in 2009. His move to Raymond James came in 2013.

Janney has its headquarters in Philadelphia and about 900 advisors and $153 billion in assets under management. The last time Raymond James, based in St. Petersburg, Florida, reported its advisor headcount, in October, the total stood at 8,787. In its latest earnings call in April it reported its main wealth management unit had $1.48 trillion in AUM.

Team with $450M AUM joins LPL from Raymond James

A father-son duo are leaving Raymond James to join LPL Financial's channel for "supported independence."

Robert Bell and his son, Keegan, have joined LPL's Strategic Wealth Services channel to start Bell Wealth Partners in Fairbanks, Alaska. They had $450 million under management at Raymond James. Strategic Wealth Services allows advisors to own their practices while receiving various types of back-office support.

Joining the Bells at LPL are the advisor Tom Cook and client associates Renee Schoettle, Margarita Duran-Espino, Jamie Walker and Kirsten Bell. Bell Wealth Partners also has an office in Medford, Oregon.

Robert Bell started his career at Merrill in 1997, moved to Wells Fargo in 2006 and joined Raymond James in 2019. Keegan Bell has been in the industry for seven years, joined Wells Fargo in 2017 and also moved to Raymond James in 2019.

RIA aggregator Aspen Standard buys firm with $880M in AUM

Aspen Standard Wealth, an RIA acquirer started last year with private equity backing, has completed its third big acquisition.

Sky Investment Group, a firm in Hartford, Connecticut with $880 million under management, joined Aspen in a deal completed on June 30. The acquisition brings Aspen's total for recently added assets to just over $6.5 billion.

Sky Investment Group, the smallest of the three firms Aspen has acquired so far, works with 369 households, several retirement plans and eight charities. Robert Bingham, who founded Sky in 2005, leads the group's 14-person team alongside CEO Kendall Bolt, who was previously an investment banker at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Aspen CEO Aly Kassim-Lakha said his firm seeks to help RIAs grow by offering them financing, marketing and client referrals. The firm also provides support for practice management, recruiting and mergers and acquisitions, among other things.

Aspen's two previous acquisitions were Summitry, a San Francisco Bay Area RIA with $2.8 billion under management and New England Private Wealth Advisors, a Boston-area firm managing $2.9 billion. Aspen's goal is to have $100 billion under management by 2030.

RIA Procyon acquires firm with $600M in AUM

The large RIA Procyon has pushed its assets under management beyond $8 billion with its acquisition of Wooster Corthell Wealth Management. The announcement, made this week, signifies a notable milestone for the firm.

Wooster, which has its headquarters in Glastonbury, Connecticut, brings about $600 million in managed assets to Procyon, which is also based in Connecticut. The acquisition also brings Procyon three advisors and five support staff members.

Wooster was previously led by president and CEO Matthew William Corthell, who is joining Procyon as a senior vice president and senior wealth advisor. Procyon was founded in 2017 by advisors who had left UBS and is part of Dynasty Financial Partners' large network of RIAs that receive help with technology, back-office support and other needs in return for a fee. In April, Procyon received a minority investment from Constellation Wealth Capital, a private equity firm founded in 2023 by the former Emigrant Partners CEO Karl Heckenberg.

Sanctuary gains $580M team from BMO Private Wealth

The RIA aggregator Sanctuary Wealth is bolstering its presence in Indianapolis with a bank-based advisor team pulled over from BMO Private Wealth.

Velorum Wealth Management, led by founder and managing partner Bernard Reed is joining Sanctuary's Partnered Independence channel, which provides advisors with various types of back-office control while maintaining their control over their business.The firm manages roughly $580 million in client assets, according to Sanctuary.

Before coming to Sanctuary, Reed had been a private wealth advisor and director at Bank of Montreal Wealth Management and had worked mainly with high net worth clients and families, as well as organizations like closely held family businesses. Velorum primarily serves business owners with companies valued between $10 million and $100 million. The firm provides financial, tax and estate planning.

Sanctuary was founded in 2018 by the former Merrill executive Jim Dickson, who was suddenly replaced at the top of the firm by current CEO Adam Malamed in early 2023. Sanctuary's big deals include its acquisition in May 2024 of tru Independence, a network of about 30 RIAs. Sanctuary, which is majority owned by Italian asset management firm Azimut Group, now has more than 125 partner firms in 32 states, managing $50 billion in client assets.

Carson Group buys firm with $608M in client assets

Carson Group, a large private equity-backed RIA aggregator, has scooped up a large advisory practice in its 15th acquisition of the year.

Aveo Capital, in Englewood, Colorado, is bringing its $608 million in client assets to Carson Group. Following the acquisition, Aveo will take on the Carson Wealth brand.

Aveo Capital was co-founded in 2011 by the managing partner Keys Tinney and his partners Brian Rorick and Michael Beerman. Its business has been built on helping individual clients, families and business owners with complex financial decisions.

With 15 deals so far in 2025, Carson Group remains one of the most aggressive so-called RIA aggregators now buying up individual advisory practices. Carson, which has its headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska, manages more than $42 billion through its advisory network of more than 150 partner offices.

Carson Group sold a nearly 30% stake in itself in 2021 to the private equity giant Bain Capital. At the time, Carson said the deal placed the firm's value at $1 billion.

Various industry experts have predicted 2025 will set a record for M&A deals in wealth management. The industry tracking firm DeVoe & Co. recently reported 75 transactions among registered investment advisors in the first three months of this year, the highest for any first quarter going back to 2018. And 2024 saw a record-breaking 272 deals, according to DeVoe.

Beacon Pointe Advisors scoops up six firms in short order

Beacon Pointe Advisors, a Newport Beach, California-based RIA aggregator, has wrapped up six acquisitions in 60 days.

The purchases include RIAs in Massachusetts, California, Ohio, Texas and Wisconsin. The acquired firms' assets under management range from $210 million to over $1 billion.

Notably, several of these newly integrated firms are led, in part or entirely, by women — a priority for Beacon Pointe, which identifies itself as the largest female-led RIA in the nation. All the acquired firms will adopt the Beacon Pointe name. They will also gain access to Beacon Pointe's "allWealth" services, which include help with financial, retirement, estate, tax and health care planning, in addition to investment management.

Beacon Pointe, which manages $47 billion in client assets, sold a minority stake in itself to the private equity giant KKR in 2021. The firm is led by CEO and founder Shannon Eusey and President Matt Cooper.

The six acquisitions are:

Waypoint Wealth Partners in Mill Valley, California, a fee-only advisory with over $1 billion in client assets and 12 employees founded by Annette Brinton and Chuck Bowes.
Hart & Patterson Financial Group in Amherst, Massachusetts, a women-led RIA with roughly $284 million in client assets owned by Vikki Lenhart.
Heritage Financial Planning in Dallas with $335 million in client assets will join Beacon Pointe's existing Texas advisor group, which oversees more than $6.2 billion.
Jentner Wealth Management, the first firm Beacon Pointe has acquired in Ohio, was founded in 1984 by Bruce Jentner and manages nearly $600 million in assets.
Michael A. Dubis Financial Planning in Middleton, Wisconsin, a fee-only advisory with $280 million in AUM.
Ng Wealth Advisors in the Bay Area, an all-women advisory team led by Sally Ng and her daughter, Jeanette Ng. They bring about $210 million in client assets.

Bernstein promotes internally, makes outside hires for new RIA division

Bernstein Private Wealth Management, a division of the asset manager AllianceBernstein, has named three executives to lead its efforts to buy RIAs and recruit advisors working with wealthy clients.

Craig Storch, who has been with the firm for 25 years, has been appointed senior managing director for growth strategies. Neel Ray, who most recently oversaw mergers and acquisitions at World Investment Advisors, was hired as senior national director on Bernstein Private Wealth's growth strategies team. Marshall Butler, who previously did marketing for Wells Fargo's wealth management business, has been hired to be head of marketing at Bernstein Private.

All three leaders will report to Aaron Bates, the firm's head of ultrahigh net worth and growth strategies. Bernstein is seeking to build its private wealth business more through so-called inorganic growth, or bringing in assets through acquisition and recruiting deals. To that end, it's seeking to recruit advisors in key markets and pursuing acquisitions of registered investment advisors.

Sign outside offic eof Financial Industry Regulatory Authority

Brokerage industry consolidates more while registered rep ranks rise

The broker-dealer industry saw the continuation of a couple trends last year, with the total number of firms decreasing while the number of registered representatives rose for the fourth consecutive year.

According to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's recent "Industry Snapshot" annual report, the number of registered firms decreased to 3,249 in 2024, down from 3,298 in 2023 and 3,378 in 2022. Meanwhile, the ranks of firms' registered representatives grew, reaching 634,508 by the end of 2024, an increase from 628,361 in 2023. This growth was attributed to more new representatives entering the industry (44,525) than those who exited (38,378) last year.

Looking at firms by their size, the report also found that midsize firms, defined as those with 151 to 499 registered representatives, were the only ones to increase in number. Their total went from 198 in 2023 to 209 firms in 2024. Firms with 150 or fewer representatives saw a decline, dropping to 2,891 in 2024 from 2,945 in 2023. Large firms, with 500 or more representatives, also decreased in number, falling to 149 from 155 in the prior year.

The average number of representatives at firms meanwhile increased to 198 in 2024, up from 193 in 2023 and 187 in 2022. The median number of representatives at firms also slightly edged up to 12 last year, after remaining at 11 for several years.