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Bluespring Wealth Partners, an Austin, Texas-based registered investment adviser owned by Kestra Holdings, has acquired Plymouth, Mass.-based SHP Financial, adding $2.3 billion in assets under management and expanding its presence in New England.
The acquisition brings a 50-person team to Bluespring’s W-2 model, including seven production consultants and 18 financial services professionals across three offices in Massachusetts. SHP, a Bluespring partner company, will retain its entire team and its brand name through the transaction.
SHP was founded in 2003 by Derek Gregoire, Matthew Peck and Keith Ellis Jr., who began their careers in the insurance industry and then moved on to run an employee-owned RIA. The company hosts Fidelity Investments’ NFS and provides financial planning services to mass affluent and high-net-worth clients, including its proprietary Retirement Roadmap program.
“While we have the infrastructure to continue growing as we do now, we want to expand,” said Peck, co-founder and partner at SHP Financial. “To realize our vision of bringing the ‘small hydro path’ to the Northeast, we wanted to partner with a company that could provide us with the immediate infrastructure, expertise and network to make this happen.”
Peck said the company began looking for a partner in mergers and acquisitions advisory firm Turkey Hill Management about 12 months ago, but was “rejected” by RIAs that adopted an integration model. Instead, they are looking for a buyer willing to let them retain an operating model they have honed through “trial and error.”
“For us, the integration model provided by others means that when we want to be leaders, we follow the lead of others,” he said. “We are grateful to Bluespring for recognizing our potential early on and for being willing to support us rather than interfere with our vision.”
According to previous announcements, this is Bluespring Wealth Partners’ largest transaction by assets since its founding in 2019, and the largest under President Pradeep Jayaraman, who takes the top job after leaving Focus Financial Partners in 2024. It also puts the company on track to match or exceed the $6 billion in total assets added by 2025, which includes some teams affiliated with broker/dealer Kestra Financial.
“SHP is a team that has built meaningful scale and remains eager to grow,” Jayaraman said in a statement. “That’s why this is an acceleration story, not a transition story.”
