RBC pulls $770M team from UBS: Advisor Moves

January 23, 2026 12:39 PM

RBC leads off this week with yet another large team pulled from UBS.

Also, Cetera, Choreo and Modern Wealth Management make notable acquisitions, and Ascentis pulls three separate firms together under a new holding company. Check it out below.

RBC pulls $770M AUM team from UBS

RBC's U.S. wealth management division is making further inroads in New York State with a seven-person advisory team pulled from UBS.

RBC Wealth Management-U.S. announced this week that Creative Strategies for Modern Wealth Group is joining it in its branch in Syracuse, New York. The team had formerly managed $770 million at UBS.

Creative Strategies for Modern Wealth consists of five advisors — Michael Wirtheim, Ronald Scott, Nancy Collins, Ronald Molinari and Eric Petranchuk — and two client associates. The team members arrived at UBS through a wide variety of paths.

Wirtheim started his career at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter in 2001 and went to UBS in 2005. Scott began in 1992 at PaineWebber, a brokerage later acquired by UBS, and later moved through several firms before joining UBS in 2007.

Collins started at McDonald Investments in 2001 and moved to UBS in 2011 following a short time at Key Investment Services. Molinari started at Lehman Bros. in 1981, went to Smith Barney in 1993 and joined UBS in 2009. And Petranchuk began at M&T Securities in 1998 and, following stints at various firms, arrived at UBS in 2024.

UBS has seen large numbers of advisors leave following changes it made to its compensation policies last year. The changes reduced payouts for low-end revenue producers and made more modest cuts for some advisors higher up on the income-generation scale.

This year UBS has rolled back some of those compensation changes in the hopes of stemming advisor defections. Large teams have continued exiting, though.

UBS ended its third quarter with 5,779 advisors in its Americas unit, which includes Canada and Latin America. That was up slightly from the number for the second quarter but down from 5,986 advisors in the third quarter of 2024.

RBC reported last year that it had roughly 2,200 advisors in its U.S. wealth management unit.

Ascentis Holdings to combine three firms into one with $2B in assets

Michael Mansur is a founder of Ascentis Holdings.

Golden State Equity Partners, Ascentis Wealth Management and Ascentis Asset Management are coming together to form Ascentis Holdings.

The new firm will have 43 advisors in 16 states managing $2 billion in client assets. As part of the merger, Golden State Equity Partners is changing its name to Ascentis Independent Advisors and will work with advisors operating under their own brands.

Ascentis Wealth Management is for advisors who work as direct employees under the Ascentis brand. And Ascentis Asset Management came from a merger of a firm called WealthShield with Golden State's asset management business.

Ascentis Holdings was founded by Michael Mansur, who is now CEO of Ascentis, and Clint Sorenson, now CEO of Ascentis Asset Management and the founder of WealthShield. John Nahas, the founder of Golden State Equity Partners, will now be the CEO of Ascentis Independent Advisors.

Ascentis said in a press release that the new company will allow advisors to work how they want — either as direct employees under the Ascentis brand or as independent contractors — while taking advantage of a large array of investment opportunities offered through Ascentis Asset Management.

"Ascentis Holdings gives experienced, high-performing advisors the freedom to run their businesses their way, backed by infrastructure that drives a more consistent client experience," Mansur said in a statement. "In the end, advisors stay in control, while the platform adds the institutional depth that makes the model durable."

Cetera buys Darnall Sikes wealth business with $1.9B in assets

Cetera is adding to its channel for RIAs with a wealth management business already affiliated with its tax-centered subsidiary Avantax.

Darnall Sikes Wealth Partners, a Lafayette, Louisiana-based firm with roughly $1.9 billion in client assets, is joining Avantax Planning Partners within a unit Cetera started last year for registered investment advisors. A separate but affiliated accounting firm, Darnall Sikes & Frederick, will remain independent.

Darnall Sikes Wealth Partners had already been receiving various types of support from Avantax, a tax-centered wealth manager Cetera acquired in 2023.

"This expanded relationship with Darnall Sikes underscores Cetera's leadership in supporting advisors throughout every phase of their professional journey," Jen Hanau, the head of Cetera's RIA and branches channel, said in a statement.

Cetera has roughly 12,000 advisors and $284 billion in assets under management.

Choreo scoops up two RIAs with $1.3B in total assets

Jason Van de Loo_CEO, Choreo.jpg — Jason Van de Loo is the CEO of Choreo.

The private equity-backed RIA acquirer Choreo has added to its roster of acquisitions with its purchase of a conjoined pair of advisory firms out of Pennsylvania.

Chicago-based Choreo announced this week that it has bought most of the assets of Northeast Financial Group and Herbein Financial Group in a deal whose terms were undisclosed. The two RIAs together manage roughly $1.3 billion in client assets.

Northeast Financial Group, based in Allentown, Pennsylvania, dates to 1987. It helped found Herbein Financial Group two years ago through a joint venture with the accounting firm Herbein.

Both firms are now led by partner and managing director Josh Laychock. He and 11 other employees, including six financial advisors, will now be joining Choreo.

Choreo has roots dating back 20 years. It became an independent concern in 2022 when the private equity firm Parthenon Capital Partners acquired the wealth management arm of the accounting giant RSM and gave that unit the Choreo name. It now works with roughly 7,000 clients and has $27.2 billion in assets under management and advisement.

Modern Wealth acquires RIA with $300M in AUM

The RIA acquirer Modern Wealth Management is putting down further roots in New York State with the acquisition of a four-person advisory group that will work out of its Rochester office.

The new team, formerly part of Manning & Napier Associates, is led by Craig Houck, who started in the industry in the late 1990s. Houck, who will now have the title of managing director, and the three other advisors on this team oversee $300 million in client assets.

Modern Wealth was founded in 2023 by three executives formerly with United Capital, a firm that was sold to Goldman Sachs in 2019. Modern Wealth, which has financial backing from the private equity firm Crestview Partners, added 19 advisory teams last year and now has $11 billion in assets under management.