With succession and managing growth being important issues for RIAs, the Cetera business model is evolving.

Cetera Financial Group has introduced Cetera Planning Partners, a national employee-advisor RIA that unifies two businesses: Avantax Planning Partners (APP) and The Retirement Planning Group (TRPG). 

The combined company will have more than 100 advisors and about $19 billion in assets under administration as of the end of March. It will run as an employee-advisor community within Cetera's RIA and branches channel. 

The group has been assembled to build on Cetera's efforts to expand its employee-advisor RIA community through a range of strategic transactions and growth initiatives. Over the past six years, Cetera has completed about 70 transactions to this end, including the addition of Darnall Sikes Wealth Partners, Plains Wealth Management, and Matkovic Financial Group so far in 2026.

"We built Cetera Planning Partners around a simple idea – advisors should never have to choose between what's best for their clients today and what's right for the future," said Jennifer Hanau (pictured below), president, Cetera RIA and branches channel.

Jennifer Hanau

"For growth-focused advisors, that means more time with clients and a full bench of specialists behind them. For those thinking about succession, it means certainty: for their clients, their team, and the legacy they've built."

Advisors within Cetera Planning Partners can draw on in-house specialists across financial planning, tax, investments, estate planning, insurance, trust services and retirement solutions, alongside established CPA firm relationships and a multi-custodial platform built within Cetera to support RIAs.

TRPG is now rebranded as Cetera Planning Partners, with APP expected to join the Cetera Planning Partners brand upon integration into the RIA later this year.

"To undertake a shift as significant as Cetera Planning Partners, you need the right conditions, the right alignment and the right leadership, and we have all those things backed by a strong capital structure," Cetera CEO Mike Durbin said. "Advisor sentiment is increasingly aligned with the RIA model, driven by accelerating client demand for financial planning and advice. Cetera Planning Partners is how we lead it."

(Editor's note: It is worth noting that Durbin, a former top executive at Fidelity, knows the RIA space well. This publication intends to closely watch developments at Cetera and what its actions tell us about how the RIA sector evolves.)

As of December 31, 2025, Cetera firms managed about $640 billion in assets under administration and $294 billion in assets under management.