Merit Financial Advisors, an Alpharetta, Ga.-based registered investment advisor with $20.78 billion in client assets, has acquired Blueprint Wealth Advisors, a Midwest-based firm with $1.2 billion in assets. The team joins from Commonwealth Financial Network.
Blueprint, with offices in Chicago and Rockford, Ill., as well as Fitchburg, Wisc., specializes in serving high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth clients. The firm is run by Ryan Evans and Nick Wilkins, who join Merit as regional directors and partners.
“Partnering with a larger firm that shares our culture was important to us, both for supporting continued growth and for enhancing the resources and services we can offer our clients,” Evans said in a statement.
This represents Merit’s 52nd acquisition, following its deal with Mennenga Tax & Financial earlier this month, adding $715 million in assets.
In July, Merit agreed to sell a minority stake to Constellation Wealth Capital, a private equity firm focusing on wealth managers founded in 2023 by Karl Heckenberg, the former CEO of Emigrant Partners. The funding would support Merit’s expansion via acquisitions and advisor recruitment, as well as continued investments in technology and client service.
As part of the deal, Wealth Partners Capital Group and a group of investors led by HGGC’s Aspire Holdings sold the minority stake in Merit they’d held since 2019.
Evans and Wilkins were affiliated with Commonwealth for 13 years prior to the Merit deal. In a statement, the firm said it gained access to resources and services “not available through its current broker/dealer partner.”
Commonwealth has lost many significant advisor teams in the wake of its acquisition by LPL Financial this summer.
Kestra Financial also picked up a Commonwealth team this week, with the addition of Grandview Partners, a Westwood, Mass.-based practice with about $800 million in assets. The 10-person Grandview was founded in 2019 by Douglas Mavilia, Timothy Ryan and Peter Smith. They’re joined by advisors Dan Sparta and Peter Donohoe, and Lindsey Hardy, director of operations.
