With the 2026 dealmaking season for RIAs officially in full swing, Integrated Partners added a $300 million planning firm to extend its presence in Kansas, while the latest addition to Bluespring Wealth Partners forms a $1.7 billion practice in the Kestra network.
Integrated Partners has recruited Pisces Wealth, a Lawrence, Kansas-based advisory firm overseeing about $300 million in assets, as it continues to court planning-led advisors.
Pisces is led by founders Greg Hill and James Norton, who trace their partnership back to their time at Keating & Associates. Norton joined the firm in 2007, working alongside Hill, who had already been there for more than a decade. In 2020, they launched Pisces to deliver a more structured, planning-focused experience as client needs became more complex.
The move also brings advisor Josh Hill – Greg Hill's son, who operates under Hillside Wealth – onto Integrated’s platform.
Integrated, which reports more than $23.8 billion in assets under advisement, is positioning the relationship as another example of its appeal to growth-minded independent advisors. President Andree Mohr highlighted the incoming “entrepreneurial, growth-minded advisors who are building with purpose,” adding that Hill and Norton “bring a strong client-first mindset and a clear vision for the future.”
By joining Integrated, Pisces gains access to expanded tax, planning and investment resources, as well as the firm’s CPA Alliance, while maintaining control over its brand and client relationships.
The Pisces deal arrives on the heels of Integrated's addition of Fair Street Advisors in Connecticut last week.
Bluespring Wealth Partners is continuing to build out its partner network by bringing Cranford, New Jersey-based Front Porch Financial into existing partner firm US Financial Services, creating a combined $1.7 billion practice.
The merger gives US Financial a fifth office, adding to four other locations across the northern and southeastern US.
Front Porch was founded by Elizabeth Blanchard, whose more than three decades of experience started with a bank teller role and later included corporate banking positions in New York. Over time, she built a practice focused on guiding clients through major life transitions, with an emphasis on empowering women and advancing financial literacy in underserved communities.
“Putting clients first is always my priority, and this partnership lets me do that on an even greater scale,” she said.
Bluespring, the fee-only RIA business within the Kestra Financial Services network, closed nine deals in 2025 totaling more than $6 billion in assets.
Meanwhile, Credent Wealth Management is kicking off 2026 with a pair of acquisitions, buying MainStreet Financial Advisors in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and First State Investment Advisors in Tulsa, Oklahoma, as it pursues a national buildout of its fee-only model.
Together, the firms bring about $250 million in assets and roughly 350 clients to Credent, lifting the RIA’s total assets to more than $4.3 billion across 14 offices.
Four advisors and two staff members will join as part of the transactions, including MainStreet founder John Ruzza and First State vice president Matt Redmond.
MainStreet, previously affiliated with Cambridge Investment Research – which recently made a strategic minority investment in Ameriflex – is moving off a national broker-dealer platform in a shift toward greater independence and a fee-only structure.
The Kalamazoo office will integrate with Credent’s existing Portage, Michigan, location, while First State will form a new Tulsa office to complement the firm’s Oklahoma City presence.
Credent is framing the deals as part of a longer-term expansion strategy backed by capital from Crestline Investors, which formed a strategic relationship with Credent in 2024 that was expanded just last month.
CEO David Hefty said Credent is “starting the year with meaningful momentum” and that welcoming the new teams reflects growing interest from advisors who want to join a firm that “protects independence, invests in its people, and brings our core values to a national scale.”
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