Cetera brings in $300M Tennessee-based Marmo, bolsters national employee-advisor RIA

Cetera Financial Group has acquired the assets of Johnson City, Tennessee-based RIA Marmo Financial Group, as the company looks to expand its national employee-advisor RIA.

The deal means that Scott Marmo, Marmo Financial Group’s founder, principal advisor, and sole owner, as well as his eight-strong team, are joining Cetera Planning Partners as W-2 employees.

Cetera Planning Partners was formed in April through the merger of two existing RIA practices - Avantax Planning Partners and The Retirement Planning Group. With the Marmo deal, the division has roughly $19 billion in assets under advisement.

Marmo Financial Group, which was not previously affiliated with Cetera, has approximately $300 million in assets under management. The practice works with roughly 620 clients.

"We had been approached by a number of large firms, some with very lucrative offers, but culture alignment was the most important thing to me, and it overrode everything else," said Scott Marmo, in a statement. "What ultimately brought me to Cetera was the combination of that culture fit with the ability to add in-house estate planning, legal support, and CPA services, which are capabilities our clients have been asking for."

With the acquisition, Cetera is also expanding its footprint in Tennessee, where it will retain and continue operating Marmo Financial Group’s office.

Cetera has been on something of an M&A spree recently. Last week MTI Financial Advisors, which was previously part of Osaic, joined Cetera and its Summit Financial Networks community. Based in Edina, Minnesota, and with a branch office in Florida, MTI Financial Advisors oversees approximately $350 million in assets under advisement. 

Earlier this month Cetera also brought in Harleysville, Pennsylvania-based Tupelo Wealth Partners through its Summit Financial Networks. The Tupelo Wealth Partners deal brought in roughly $490 million in assets under advisement.

In May Cetera announced that former Commonwealth advisor Rick Bergstrom and his 7G Wealth Management team had joined its Summit Financial Networks. Bergstrom and his Tallahassee, Florida-based team had roughly $240 million in assets under advisement at the time of the deal.