Cetera Subsidiary TRPG Buys $180M NJ RIA 

Cetera Financial Group parent company Cetera Holdings announced that its employee-based RIA, The Retirement Planning Group (TRPG), has acquired $180 million RIA Watters Financial Services. The Paramus, NJ-based father-son duo is led by Tim Watters and Colin Watters. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. 

Joining The Retirement Planning Group has freed the advisors from “many of the time consuming and cumbersome burdens of operating a financial planning business,” Tim Watters said. 

The acquisition marks the third for Leawood, KS-based TRPG since being acquired by Cetera in June 2023. Since then, TRPG acquired Dightman Capital Group, Inc. in February and closed an acquisition of Lee Financial Group Hawaii in June. TRPG now oversees more than $2 billion in assets under management. 

Genstar Capital-backed Cetera oversees more than $505 billion in assets under administration and $213 billion in assets under management, as of March 31, 2024, and is home to more than 12,000 financial professionals and their teams 

In September 2023, Cetera paid $1.2 billion in cash to purchase Avantax, a tax-focused financial planning and wealth management company with $83.8 billion in assets under administration and $42.6 billion in assets under management. In January of the same year, the firm bought the retail wealth management business of St. Paul, MN-based life insurer Securian Financial Group, Inc., adding about $24.8 billionn in assets $47.4 billon in assets under administration.