NewEdge lands $2.2B Bernstein team to lead Houston

NewEdge Wealth has opened its 20th office in Houston. The incoming team, from AllianceBernstein's Bernstein Private Wealth Management, oversaw $2.2 billion in client assets. Jeffrey Thompson and Shannon Willems join as managing directors; Sara DeJay Willis becomes vice president. Three client service associates round out the group. The group brings more than 30 years of combined experience with ultra-high-net-worth clients, including business owners working through exit strategies, multi-generational estate and financial plans, and 401(k) and pension optimization.

NewEdge Wealth, the ultra-high-net-worth arm of NewEdge Capital Group, counts more than 65 advisors. The advisors work across 20 locations, including New York, Chicago, Miami, and San Francisco. Rob Sechan, founder and managing partner of the parent firm, tied the expansion to Houston's concentration of complex wealth. "Houston is one of the fastest-growing economies in the country and continues to be home to an increasing number of high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth individuals with complex wealth management needs," he said. Willems added: "As Houston grew, so did our team and its business. We needed a firm that could support our growth and provide the solutions our clients wanted to preserve and grow their wealth."

The hire is the latest step in a bank-channel breakaway that this publication has argued is early innings. Each private-bank team that lands on an independent platform makes the next one easier; the recruiting economics improve with every liftout. The team's value goes beyond the assets. It focuses on business owners at the point of sale — the client whose liquidity event tends to produce decades of manageable wealth. Houston, by Sechan's description, is exactly the kind of city where that practice wins.

Another deal this week came from outside the advisor channel. Stevens Capital Partners, an Omaha, Neb.-based RIA with $800 million in assets under management, acquired J.F. DePetris Jr., CPA, PLLC, a Dallas tax practice. The deal brings more than 300 tax clients. More than 100 of those clients are businesses. Their operations span 15 states. Stevens now serves clients in more than 40 states, with concentrations in Nebraska and New York.

David Stevens, founder and chief executive officer, described the purchase as a long-term strategy to absorb retiring solo CPAs. "It's a long-term strategy of ours to continue to go out there and find aging CPA firms, solo practitioners who want to shift their practice," he said. Stevens Capital has grown organically since its November 2020 founding. The firm now manages more than $800 million. It grew 65% from 2025 to 2026.

Wealth Enhancement Group, the Minnesota consolidator, added its own deal this week. It announced a $644 million Olympia, Wash., tuck-in. The practice has a single advisor and pushes the firm past $160.7 billion. It's a straightforward book acquisition — a founder's book converting to platform scale. The traditional purchase still works when the book is large enough.

The Stevens deal is the more revealing of the two purchases this week. A CPA who has done a business owner's taxes for years owns the financial relationship in a way an asset manager never will. Buying a tax practice is a distribution decision, not a support function; the client's next liquidity event flows through the tax relationship before it reaches a wealth platform.

The NewEdge hire will get more attention. The Stevens acquisition is the one to watch. The consolidation trade has favored buying books of assets outright. The firms that build services around those books — tax, estate, exit planning — are the ones that hold the client when the next recruiter calls. Stevens has said it will keep looking for retiring CPAs. The next acquisition will show whether the strategy works.