Modera Wealth Management is advancing its deliberate, culture-first acquisition strategy by bringing a Plantation, Florida-based registered investment advisor into its national platform.
The fee-only integrator, which currently oversees $17.5 billion in assets under management across 18 offices, has has struck a deal to add Northstar Financial Planners to its modest circle of partners.
CEO Allen Giese, who built Northstar over the course of 26 years around fiduciary advice for pre-retirees and Florida Retirement System special risk employees, will join Modera as a wealth manager and principal.
"We spent a great deal of time together making sure this was the right cultural and philosophical match," Tom Orecchio, CEO of Modera Wealth Management, said in a statement Tuesday. "We're pleased to welcome Northstar's clients and professionals to Modera as we continue to grow our presence in Florida."
Working with more than 6,300 clients, Modera traces its roots to 1983, when its predecessor established itself as one of the country's first fee-only advisory practices. It is majority employee-owned, with a non-control minority equity stake held by Tria Capital Partners.
For Giese, joining a larger platform was less about price than about durability, with succession planning being a central factor.
"We've grown to a point where having a sound, durable succession plan isn't optional. It's responsible," Giese said. "Joining Modera helps ensure the future of the firm is not dependent on any one individual, and it preserves the relationships and planning philosophy that our clients value."
Research published by Cerulli Associates found that nearly 40% of advisors will retire over the next decade – it projects over 26,000 advisor exits representing $2.5 trillion in AUM – with a significant portion having no succession plans in place. On the other side of the pipeline, Devoe has also flagged the shortage of next-generation advisors with the capital to buy out founders, placing pressure on the traditional succession model and fueling no small amount of deal activity across the industry.
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The wealth management industry posted its highest quarterly deal count on record in the first three months of 2026, according to the latest RIA M&A research by Echelon Partners, with 142 transactions announced and $1.67 trillion in assets changing hands.
Modera has added 20 partner firms since 2011, but Vince Curtin, who leads mergers and acquisitions at the firm, has been explicit about what sets Modera's approach apart from the large consolidators.
"We are very specifically an integrator. We're not just building a platform," Curtin told InvestmentNews in an interview last November. "We're a firm of advisors who are fiduciaries. We lead with planning and we have a similar investment philosophy, which is evidence-based investing."
RIA buyers accounted for 74.6% of total deal activity in the first quarter, with their average deal size growing from $1 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025 to $1.7 billion, according to Echelon. Modera is happy not to run with those big dogs, Curtin said, prefering instead to focus on partners who align with its fee-only fiduciary model, its collaborative culture, and its commitment to comprehensive financial planning.
Last September, Modera announced a transaction with Ferrentino & Associates, a New Jersey-based accounting practice with more than 30 years of experience in tax planning and consulting for high-net-worth individuals and business owners. Gary Ferrentino, the firm's founder, joined Modera as director of tax services, where he leads an integrated tax group alongside the firm's existing team in Asheville, North Carolina.
"Unified planning across investments, taxes, and estate strategy isn't just a value-add; it's essential to full-service, fiduciary wealth management," Orecchio said of that deal.
On top of Modera's existing office in Inverness, Florida, the Northstar transaction further cements its presence in the Southeast. The firm has said it is also targeting the Midwest and West Coast as part of a longer-term goal to rank among the nation's leading wealth management firms.
"This is a people business, as much of a cliché as that is," Curtin said. "Treating every new partner that comes on as a unique opportunity to grow in the right way – that's something that Modera has gotten right from the very beginning."
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