Carson Group adds $405M Northwestern Mutual team in Atlanta

Carson Group has expanded its footprint in Atlanta, adding a $405 million advisory practice just days after it hired an industry veteran to help draw more advisor talent into its independent channel.

The Omaha, Nebraska-based firm revealed Thursday that it has welcomed Yari Capital, extending a string of moves as Carson works to expand its footprint among independent-minded advisors nationwide.

Yari Capital is led by founder and senior wealth advisor Kurt Mattson, a certified financial planner who launched his practice in 1995. The team, which joins Carson from Northwestern Mutual, also includes Olivia Payne, a CFP and director of financial planning, along with a three-person support staff. The firm works with executives, physicians, attorneys, business owners and other high-earning professionals, taking what it describes as a planning-first approach to building, preserving and transferring wealth.

Mattson – who had been registered with Northwestern Mutual since 1997, according to his BrokerCheck record – said financial planning has anchored his business model from the start, with an emphasis on advice that puts client goals ahead of product sales across cash flow, tax, retirement, investment and estate planning decisions.

"I've always believed that my responsibility is to help clients make decisions based solely on what's in their best interest," Mattson said.

Gregg Johnson, Carson's national sales director, framed the addition as a fit with the firm's approach to courting independent practices. "Kurt Mattson has spent more than three decades building a business around trust, planning and doing what's right for clients," Johnson said. "That's exactly the kind of advisor who thrives at Carson."

Mattson said he was drawn to Carson after speaking with other advisors who had gone through the firm's affiliation process. He described the move as the next chapter for his business, in which he seeks to expand the resources available to clients without giving up the independence he built his practice around.

"As our firm continued to grow, I wanted an independent partner that would allow us to stay true to that philosophy while giving us access to best-in-class technology, advanced planning expertise and a community of advisors committed to putting clients first," Mattson said.

The Yari Capital addition lands in the middle of an active stretch for Carson's independent channel. Earlier this week, the firm hired Kevin Peterson, a nearly three-decade veteran of advisor recruiting from Osaic, as senior vice president of business development.

Earlier this summer, Carson also set up dedicated teams to serve its independent and integrated advisor channels separately, a structural shift intended to let each business focus on advisors' specific needs while preserving flexible affiliation options.

Last month, the firm added a $1.76 billion team from Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network in New Hampshire, which marked its second billion-dollar partnership of the year after adding Jackson Wealth, a $1.1 billion team from Osaic in Florida.