Bluespring Wealth Partners, the RIA acquisition arm of Kestra Holdings, has confirmed that Pradeep Jayaraman, a former co-head of partnerships and business development at Focus Financial Partners, has joined as president.
He replaces David Canter, who stepped down from the role about a year ago. Stuart Silverman, current chairman of Bluespring, who served as president prior to Canter, had been handling the day-to-day management of the company in the interim. Silverman will now focus on “supporting the growth, culture and evolution of the organization,” according to a statement.
Citywire RIA was the first to report Jayaraman’s move to Bluespring.
In an exclusive interview with WealthManagement.com, Jayaraman said he hopes to use his experience over the last decade at Focus to build on Bluespring’s mergers and acquisitions strategy. The pipeline, he says, is strong.
“Given my prior experience and the relationships within the wealth management industry, I’d seek to build on that M&A pipeline, and ultimately also, in addition to adding platform firms, focus on sub-acquisitions and making our existing partner firms grow inorganically,” he said.
Bluespring currently has 27 partner firms, and it has completed four deals so far in 2024. That includes the July acquisition of Rodgers & Associates Wealth Advisers, a Lancaster, Pa.-based RIA with over $1.35 billion in client assets and 25 employees. Also this summer, the firm acquired Shelton Financial Group, a Fort Wayne, Ind.-based firm with nearly $500 million in client assets. Earlier this year, it picked up Hughes Financial Services, an RIA overseeing $500 million in Herndon, Va.
In March, Bluespring combined two of its partner firms, Retirement Wealth Specialists and Security Financial Management, to create RIA with $1.4 billion in assets and five locations across Florida.
“We’ve had a great 2024, and the momentum is looking good,” Jayaraman said. “The goal is to ultimately continue that great momentum and build on it.”
In addition to M&A, he will be focused on helping partner firms grow organically. Bluespring has a dedicated practice management team that helps advisors build better sales organizations, develop a pipeline of prospects and close on those. They also have a lead generation program.
“We take away the defensive tasks, like finance, legal and HR, from every one of our partner firms so that these entrepreneurs can focus on growing their client base and ultimately helping with organic growth,” Jayaraman said.
Bluespring partner firms also have access to shared services within the Kestra ecosystem, including technology, marketing and outsourced investment management.
“We’re providing high-quality firms with institutionalized access to resources,” he added.