Advisory M&A News – 10/7/2026

Cerity Partners Acquires Echo Wealth Management

Cerity Partners LLC, an independent wealth management and investment advisory firm, acquired Echo Wealth Management, an independent firm based in the Minneapolis area.

Echo Wealth Management offers tax, estate, insurance and investment planning and has approximately $337 million in assets under management. Echo Huang, the firm’s president and founder, said the firm intends to maintain its current client relationships, while gaining access to Cerity Partners’ broader resources.

LPL Financial Acquires 2 Advisory Firms

LPL Financial LLC’s broker/dealer and registered investment adviser platforms recently gained two advisory teams.

Financial Adviser Brad Jerome of Legacy Financial Group, who joins LPL from Osaic, reported serving approximately $175 million in advisory, brokerage and retirement plan assets as of year-end 2025.

Based in Burton, Michigan, Legacy Financial Group is a financial planning and investment management firm supported by Ben McKinney, Keaton Washburn, Brooke Lince, Autumn Blackford, Lisa Blackburn and Delanie Carpenter.

Meanwhile, Advisers Scott Christian, Cecil Loyd, Jay Gentry and Matt Dion of Praxis Financial Partners joined LPL from the Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network. The team reported serving approximately $1.1 billion in advisory, brokerage and retirement plan assets as of year-end 2025.

Based in Alpharetta, Georgia, Praxis Financial Partners is a wealth management practice serving business owners, corporate retirees, executives and multigenerational families. Christian and Loyd co-founded the firm in 2013.

LPL supports more than 32,000 financial advisers and the wealth management practices of approximately 1,100 financial institutions, servicing and custodying approximately $2.6 trillion in brokerage and advisory assets.

Bluespring Wealth’s Newly Acquired Firm Enters Merger

Bluespring Wealth Partners LLC, a leading acquirer of independent wealth management firms, acquired Family Wealth Counseling, a firm that then merged with existing Bluespring firm KDI Wealth Management.

The combined practice will operate as Bluespring Wealth and oversee more than $1 billion in client assets. It has a majority women-led adviser team of eight, offering services such as business succession and exit planning, wealth transfer, estate planning, charitable planning and risk management.

Together, the two firms create a majority woman-led adviser team and reinforce a deliberate focus on serving women clients, including those navigating business ownership, retirement, inheritance and other significant financial transitions.

Clients of both firms can continue working with the same primary advisers and planning teams, according to the announcement.

Emil Ben-David Joins Prime Capital Financial

Emil Ben-David joined Prime Capital Financial as a wealth adviser. Ben-David has more than 15 years of experience with investment management and retirement, tax, estate and insurance planning.

Most recently, he served as director of financial planning at Edelman Financial Engines, according to LinkedIn.

Prime Capital Financial’s services include fee-based asset management and wealth management, retirement plan advisory services and plan participant education. It has 70 locations in the U.S.

Savant Wealth Management Acquires Cedarstone Advisors

Savant Wealth Management, a fee-only registered investment adviser, acquired Cedarstone Advisors, an RIA with approximately $213 million in assets under management. Savant did not disclose financial terms of the deal, which closed September 30.

Cedarstone Advisors, based in Thousand Oaks, California, is a team of three led by President Steve Coker. The firm primarily serves retirees, families, and employees and retirees of Southern California Edison, an electric utility company. All three team members will continue serving clients from the Thousand Oaks office.

With the addition of Cedarstone Advisors, Savant now has nearly 75 offices in 28 states. Savant had approximately $56.6 billion in assets under management and $2.2 billion in assets under advisement as of September 30.