Deals & Moves: Creative Planning, Merit Add RIAs
This week, we surveyed a few dealmakers in the wealth management space to gauge activity in 2026. The verdict: we’re down slightly compared to 2025, but all signs point to another deal frenzy as the year goes on.
It’s true that, as far as RIA dealmaking goes, things may have been a bit tepid this week. Even so, we reported on one breakaway move by a $6 billion, 13-person team joining NewEdge Advisors’ RIA partnership platform from UBS Financial Services. We also wrote about a unique minority investment deal by Joe Duran’s Rise Growth in Cyndeo Wealth Partners, a $3.1 billion RIA in the Dynasty Financial Partners network. Dynasty, which also owned a minority stake in Cyndeo, rolled over its investment as part of the setup.
Below are a few more pertinent deals to round out this “slow” week.
Creative Planning Pens Second Deal of Year with $660M Seattle-based RIA
Creative Planning, the Overland Park, Kan.-based firm managing about $700 billion in client assets, has acquired Duncan & Haley, a Seattle-based RIA with $660 million in AUM. Creative Planning completed the deal on March 12, marking its second acquisition of 2026.
Duncan & Haley, founded in 1998, serves private clients and employer-sponsored retirement plans and offers investment, tax, retirement, estate and trust services. The firm had been majority-owned by President John Haley, according to its most recent Form ADV. Haley was an advisor with LPL Financial until 2014, according to BrokerCheck.
Haley said in a statement accompanying the announcement that clients increasingly benefit from broader expertise in areas such as tax strategy, estate planning and retirement plan governance.
“Duncan & Haley has long shared our belief that integrating financial services into a personalized and coordinated strategy delivers the best results for our clients,” Creative Planning CEO and president Peter Mallouk added in a statement. “Together, we can deliver even greater value and insight for our clients’ long-term financial goals.”
Merit Acquires Second Firm in March with Yeomans Consulting
Merit Financial Advisors has acquired Yeomans Consulting Group, a Marietta, Ga.-based wealth management firm with approximately $434 million in AUM. The Atlanta-based Merit, which manages $24.7 billion in client assets, finalized the transaction on March 6.
Yeomans founder and CEO Randy Yeomans, and president and son Nicholas Yeomans, will join Merit as wealth managers and partners, along with their operations, compliance, and client service teams. The duo had been with SagePoint Financial from 2005 to 2022, according to BrokerCheck.
The acquisition is Merit’s 56th deal and follows last month’s purchase of Glenn Co, which added approximately $208 million in assets and established the firm’s seventh Pennsylvania office. In January, the RIA also announced it had acquired SSC Wealth, the financial advice team of accountancy firm SSC CPAs + Advisors, in a deal that included a partnership with CPAs at that Topeka, Kan-based firm.
Aspen Standard RIA Summitry Acquires $721M Pasadena RIA
Summitry, a $3.36 billion RIA based in Foster City, Calif., has acquired Vantage Wealth, a Pasadena, Calif.-based RIA with $721 million in AUM. Summitry was RIA holding company Aspen Standard Wealth’s first acquisition in 2024.
Vantage Wealth, founded in 2003, provides investment management and financial planning to business owners, executives and families. Originally called Osher Van de Voorde Investment Management, the firm had been majority-owned by its president, James Van de Voorde.
Van de Voorde said the move to Summitry allows the firm to provide holistic wealth management services for generations to come.
FP Transitions advised on the transaction.
Raymond James Adds Six Advisors Who Had Overseen $800M with Commonwealth
Raymond James has brought over more Commonwealth advisors who have decided to move after the independent broker/dealer was acquired by LPL Financial last August.
The six advisors with Rochester, N.Y.-based OakWood Financial Services had overseen more than $800 million in client assets at Commonwealth. They include: Mike McNaughton, Dan Schmitz, Greg Schuler, Traci Lewis, Jeff Santillo and John Woodworth. The team, which will keep its location and name, works with high-net-worth families and individuals, business owners and retirees.
“Our clients expect thoughtful, coordinated planning—not just investment selection,” McNaughton, co-founder of OFS, said in a statement. “Raymond James gives us the technology, investment platform and resources to serve clients thoughtfully, while preserving our independence and client-first mindset.”
In a recent interview with Wealth Management, Raymond James Private Client Group President Tash Elwyn said that the firm’s focus on not pushing cross-selling on advisors was helping in its recruiting efforts.