Coastline’s $430M Advisor Haul Was A Preview Of Its $5B Growth Strategy
When Coastline Wealth Management added three advisor teams with more than $430 million in assets in July 2025, the announcement looked like a strong recruiting month for a New York-based independent wealth firm. Kelly Burke and his team joined across Florida and North Carolina, Susan Cevette expanded Coastline into Minnesota and Julie Wendholt joined from Ameriprise in New York. Together, the additions brought more than 1,000 client relationships and pushed Coastline above $4.3 billion in client assets, according to the original InvestmentNews report.
The numbers were meaningful, but they understated what Coastline was actually building. The firm was not relying solely on conventional advisor recruiting, where a practice changes broker-dealers and otherwise continues operating largely as before. Coastline described itself as an active wealth-management consolidator and said it was pursuing advisory practices with roughly $50 million to $500 million in assets, while combining enterprise infrastructure, succession resources and growth planning with an effort to preserve advisor independence and local client relationships.
That strategy became much clearer with hindsight. In May 2026, Coastline said it had added 18 advisory teams from September 2024 through September 2025, bringing approximately $1.7 billion in new client assets. The firm said it had grown to roughly $5 billion in total assets, 18 offices, more than 90 team members and operations across 13 states. The original July 2025 announcement therefore was not simply a three-team recruiting burst. It sat in the middle of a broader acquisition and integration campaign built around an aging advisor population, succession demand and the ability to give smaller practices access to centralized infrastructure without immediately erasing their individual identities.
That distinction matters because wealth-management consolidation is no longer happening only through mega-RIAs buying billion-dollar firms. Smaller platforms can build meaningful national scale by repeatedly acquiring or partnering with mature practices in the $50 million to $500 million range. Coastline’s growth shows how that model can work when the consolidator understands not only capital and recruiting but also the personal problem behind many transactions: what happens to an advisory business when its founder wants more support, a succession plan or a path to monetize decades of work without abruptly walking away from clients?
TL;DR
Coastline added three teams with more than $430 million: The July 2025 additions included Kelly Burke and his team in Florida and North Carolina, Susan Cevette in Minnesota and Julie Wendholt in New York.
The additions brought more than 1,000 client relationships: Coastline said the three teams helped push the firm above $4.3 billion in client assets at the time.
The firm was already pursuing an acquisition strategy: Coastline said it targeted advisory businesses with approximately $50 million to $500 million in assets and emphasized succession, enterprise value and long-term practice transitions.
Garrett Taylor’s background helps explain the strategy: Coastline’s founder also founded Advisor Successions, a business focused on advisory-practice transactions and succession, and Coastline says much of its own historical AUM growth came through acquisitions.
Kestra supplies the larger infrastructure: Coastline operates within Kestra’s ecosystem, with securities through Kestra Investment Services and advisory services through Kestra Advisory Services.
The 2025 trio became part of a much larger expansion: Coastline later said it added 18 teams and $1.7 billion in assets during the broader September 2024 to September 2025 period.
By 2026, Coastline reported approximately $5 billion: The firm said it had 18 offices and more than 90 team members supporting the larger organization.
Succession is central to the economics: A consolidator can become both a buyer and a long-term operating partner for advisors who need continuity but do not want clients pushed through an abrupt full exit.
The same InvestmentNews roundup showed other growth models: Raymond James added a $140 million former Edward Jones advisor to its independent channel, while LPL added a $250 million mother-and-son practice from Edward Jones and Thrivent.
The larger industry lesson is about platform choice: Advisors can now sell, merge, tuck into a larger practice, remain independent with more support or shift broker-dealers without fully selling the business.
The Three Coastline Additions Were Not Three Copies Of The Same Practice
The easiest way to interpret Coastline’s July 2025 announcement is as one $430 million transaction. Operationally, it was three separate advisor relationships with different geographic footprints, client specialties and business histories. That diversity helps explain the attraction of a consolidator model because a scalable platform has to support practices without forcing every incoming advisor into exactly the same client proposition.
Kelly Burke brought the largest and most geographically distributed practice of the three. InvestmentNews described him as a 29-year industry veteran operating in Florida and North Carolina, while Coastline identified him as managing partner of Integrated Financial Strategies. Burke said the partnership offered greater scale and innovation without forcing the team to compromise the aspects of the practice it valued most.
Susan Cevette brought a different specialization. Coastline’s current biography says she has spent more than 20 years working closely with women on financial decision-making and holds the Accredited Investment Fiduciary designation. Her practice retains the WatersEdge Wealth Management identity in its current Coastline contact information, illustrating how a local or niche brand can remain visible inside a larger platform.
Julie Wendholt brought another distinctive client niche. Coastline describes her as a CFP, Accredited Portfolio Management Advisor and Certified Divorce Financial Analyst whose work focuses heavily on major life transitions, particularly women navigating divorce. She came to Coastline from Ameriprise and continues to appear on Coastline’s current advisor roster.
Advisor
2025 Geography
Client/Practice Distinction
Strategic Value To Coastline
Kelly Burke
Florida and North Carolina
Long-tenured planning practice and multi-location business
Added scale and geographic reach
Susan Cevette
Minnesota
Women-focused planning and fiduciary positioning
Expanded niche expertise and Midwest presence
Julie Wendholt
New York
Divorce and life-transition planning
Added specialized planning depth in Coastline’s home state
The practices illustrate an important point about acquisition-led RIA growth. A buyer does not have to make every acquired advisor look identical. The more valuable platform may be the one capable of centralizing the functions that benefit from scale while allowing specialization to remain visible where clients actually experience it.
Coastline Was Built By Someone Who Already Understood The Succession Market
Coastline’s acquisition strategy makes more sense in the context of Garrett Taylor’s career.
Taylor founded Coastline Wealth Management and Advisor Successions in 2012. Coastline’s current biography says the wealth business grew from approximately $20 million in AUM to billions largely through acquisitions, while Advisor Successions built a business around helping advisors buy, sell and transition practices. InvestmentNews also describes Taylor as deeply involved in advisor development, acquisitions, tuck-ins and succession structures designed to protect advisor legacy and enterprise value.
That background gives Coastline something different from a firm that discovers M&A only after organic recruiting slows. Practice succession appears to have been part of the business architecture from the beginning.
The Seller’s Problem Is Usually More Complicated Than Getting The Highest Price
An advisor considering a sale may have spent 20, 30 or 40 years building client relationships. The practice can represent most of the advisor’s professional identity and a significant portion of personal net worth. A transaction therefore has to solve several questions at once: valuation, liquidity, staff continuity, client retention, branding, succession and the advisor’s own role after closing.
A national consolidator can win deals by offering the highest headline multiple, but price alone does not guarantee a smooth transfer. Clients may still leave, staff may resist the new environment and the selling advisor may discover that the post-transaction role is more restrictive than expected.
Coastline’s stated approach focuses heavily on practice transition, maximizing advisory-business value and creating long-term continuity for clients. That positioning is commercially logical for a firm whose founder has spent years working in the advisor-succession market.
This is part of a wider industry shift. NJ Financial News has examined how succession and capital are increasingly pulling broker-dealers and RIAs closer to advisor enterprise value through investments, book purchases and acquisition programs. The recent Private Advisor Group deal, for example, showed LPL investing deeper into an existing advisor ecosystem partly to strengthen succession and practice-management resources.
Coastline is working at a smaller scale, but the economic logic is similar. Advisors approaching a transition are valuable not only because of their current revenue but because the platform that solves succession may retain those assets for another generation.
Coastline’s Model Sits Between Pure Recruiting And A Traditional RIA Roll-Up
Wealth-management growth models are increasingly difficult to describe using one label.
A conventional broker-dealer recruit changes affiliation but typically continues owning the practice. A full RIA acquisition can involve a larger transfer of equity and operating control. A tuck-in may move an advisor into an existing RIA while preserving some local identity. Minority-capital deals create another variation, while succession transactions can transfer ownership gradually.
Coastline’s own language combines several of these ideas. Its 2025 announcement called the three additions acquisitions, described the firm as a consolidator and said incoming advisors gained enterprise infrastructure, succession support and growth-planning resources without sacrificing their independence or deeply personal client relationships.
That combination is significant because it reflects what advisors increasingly want from consolidation: more infrastructure without immediate institutional sameness.
Centralize The Expensive Parts, Preserve The Valuable Parts
Scale can make several functions cheaper or more sophisticated when they are shared across practices. Technology procurement, cybersecurity, compliance resources, investment research, data management, operations and centralized service can all become more efficient when spread across a larger asset base.
The local advisor relationship is different. Clients may have chosen Susan Cevette because her practice focuses on women and personal financial transitions, or Julie Wendholt because of her divorce-planning expertise. Replacing those identities with a generic national brand could destroy part of what Coastline was acquiring.
The platform therefore has to decide what should be standardized and what should remain local.
That tension appears throughout the consolidation market. NJ Financial News recently compared acquisition-led and partnership-led approaches in its analysis of RIA growth models. Bluespring Wealth Partners, another Kestra Holdings business, has leaned heavily into full acquisitions, while Concurrent has emphasized partnership and advisor autonomy.
Coastline occupies its own place on that spectrum. Its language emphasizes acquisitions and enterprise value, but its advisor-facing proposition also depends on convincing experienced professionals that joining a larger organization will not erase the practice they spent years creating.
Kestra Gives Coastline A Larger Chassis Than Its $5 Billion Size Suggests
Coastline’s scale should also be viewed in the context of Kestra Financial.
The firm’s current website says securities are offered through Kestra Investment Services and investment advisory services through Kestra Advisory Services, while Coastline is a member firm of Fusion Advisor Network within the Kestra ecosystem. Coastline remains separately identified from the Kestra entities.
At the time of the 2025 recruitment announcement, Kestra said it supported more than 1,300 producing financial professionals and oversaw approximately $142 billion in assets under advisement. The company positioned its platform around personalized consulting, integrated technology and support for traditional and hybrid RIAs.
That gives Coastline a useful strategic structure.
Coastline can operate as the advisor-facing consolidator. It can source transactions, integrate practices, build a national identity and work on succession. Kestra provides substantial parts of the broker-dealer, advisory and technology infrastructure underneath those relationships.
For an incoming advisor, the proposition is therefore layered rather than singular. The advisor is not simply evaluating Coastline. The advisor is evaluating the local or acquired practice, Coastline’s management and M&A capabilities and Kestra’s regulated infrastructure together.
More Layers Create More Capability And More Integration Risk
A layered platform can be powerful because different organizations specialize in different functions. It can also create complexity if advisors do not understand who owns a problem when something goes wrong.
A client-service issue may begin at the local practice but require Coastline operations. A brokerage matter may require Kestra. A technology problem can touch several systems. An acquisition may involve Coastline leadership, legal teams, compliance personnel and third-party custodial or vendor relationships.
That means Coastline’s growth cannot be judged only by how quickly it signs practices. The firm also has to prove that the combined structure becomes easier for advisors to use as the organization gets larger.
The 2026 expansion update suggests Coastline understood that operating challenge. The firm said it planned further investment in data systems, technology tools and service functions to support advisors and deepen client relationships after its rapid expansion.
The $430 Million Announcement Became One Piece Of A $1.7 Billion Expansion Year
The strongest evidence that the July 2025 recruiting trifecta was part of a larger strategy came from Coastline itself in 2026.
The firm said that between September 2024 and September 2025 it added 18 advisory teams across eight new states and brought in approximately $1.7 billion in new client assets. Coastline said the expansion took the business to approximately $5 billion in total assets, with 18 offices and more than 90 team members.
The list shows how deliberately Coastline was working across the midmarket. The additions included Scott Raab with $113 million, Scott Gomsak with $154 million, David Schnall with $103 million, Timothy Longo with $98 million, Jeff Stensland with $166 million and Thomas Karlen with $100 million. Jamie Grupe and Chantel Luke represented one of the larger additions at $386 million, while several other transactions sat between roughly $30 million and $120 million.
That portfolio approach matters. A consolidator does not need every transaction to be enormous if it can close, integrate and retain a consistent flow of smaller firms.
Midmarket Practices Can Be Attractive Precisely Because They Are Too Small For Mega-Deals
A $75 million or $150 million advisory practice can be highly profitable and have extremely loyal clients, yet still face infrastructure problems as the founder ages.
The advisor may not have a dedicated technology team, formal M&A staff, internal successor or enough scale to build sophisticated centralized functions alone. At the same time, the practice may be too small to attract the same attention as a multibillion-dollar RIA auction.
That gap creates an opportunity for firms such as Coastline.
Its stated acquisition range of approximately $50 million to $500 million places it directly in a segment where succession demand can be substantial and where the buyer may face less competition from the very largest national consolidators.
The strategy also diversifies acquisition risk. Instead of depending on one enormous deal, the firm can build growth across numerous practices, geographies and client segments.
The trade-off is integration volume. Eighteen teams can create more separate cultures, workflows, technology histories and personnel questions than one large acquisition.
The Asset Numbers Also Show Why M&A Reporting Needs Context
There is one data issue worth flagging.
The original 2025 Coastline announcement said Burke, Cevette and Wendholt collectively added more than $430 million. InvestmentNews repeated that figure, and Coastline said the additions took the firm above $4.3 billion.
Coastline’s 2026 retrospective later attributed $220 million to Burke, $51 million to Cevette and $29 million to Wendholt. Those later figures total approximately $300 million rather than the more than $430 million announced in July 2025. The later release does not explain the difference, so the sources may be using different measurement dates, account populations or definitions. NJ Financial News should therefore preserve the original $430 million figure when describing the 2025 announcement while treating the later individual figures as a separate retrospective disclosure rather than attempting to reconcile them without evidence.
This is not unusual in advisor-move reporting. Firms may report assets under management, assets under advisement, brokerage and retirement assets or approximate client assets using different dates and definitions. The numbers are useful indicators of scale, but they are not always perfectly comparable.
For readers, the key point is that Coastline materially expanded through the three relationships and later reported much larger cumulative acquisition growth.
Succession May Be The More Durable Growth Engine
Recruiting can be transactional.
Succession creates a different kind of opportunity because the advisor often needs a solution, not merely a new platform.
The average financial-advisor business contains relationships that can outlast the founder by decades. If the next generation is not ready or willing to buy the practice, the advisor has to find an outside buyer or risk losing enterprise value during retirement.
A consolidator that can provide capital, operational continuity and a credible client-service transition can solve that problem while acquiring recurring revenue.
This is why succession has become a strategic battleground throughout wealth management. LPL has invested more heavily in book purchases and partner ecosystems. Cetera has used minority investments and succession solutions. Raymond James has expanded advisor capital programs. RIA aggregators continue buying practices across the country.
NJ Financial News has tracked that evolution through its coverage of client ownership, where firms are increasingly moving closer to advisor books through succession capital, minority stakes and direct acquisitions.
Coastline’s approach belongs in that same conversation even though its individual deals are often smaller. The firm is effectively turning succession demand into an acquisition funnel.
The Client-Retention Math Can Matter More Than The Purchase Multiple
A buyer can pay an attractive price and still destroy value if clients leave during the transition.
That creates a strong incentive to preserve the advisor-client relationship long enough for trust to transfer from the founder to the broader organization or next-generation team.
The most successful succession transactions therefore need more than a legal closing. They need a transition calendar, clear communication, continuity among support staff and a deliberate plan for introducing clients to the people who will eventually serve them.
Coastline’s emphasis on advisor autonomy and client relationships appears designed partly around that retention problem. If the advisor can continue operating visibly within the new platform, clients may experience the deal as gradual continuity rather than an abrupt sale.
The real measure of M&A success is therefore not announced acquired AUM. It is how much revenue, client loyalty and employee talent remain several years later.
Advisor Identity Becomes Harder To Preserve As The Platform Gets Bigger
The same growth that makes Coastline more useful can threaten the quality that makes it attractive.
At $500 million or $1 billion, a firm can maintain highly personal relationships between leadership and most advisors. At $5 billion, 18 offices and more than 90 employees, communication becomes more structured and operating consistency matters more.
That creates a familiar consolidation problem.
Advisors may join precisely because a midsize firm promises more intimacy than a giant broker-dealer or national RIA. If the consolidator then grows quickly, those advisors can begin experiencing the same service queues, approval layers and standardized processes they hoped to avoid.
Coastline’s challenge is therefore not only scaling assets. It is scaling without turning its advisor-centric model into generic corporate language.
Centralized Data Will Become More Important With Every Acquisition
Coastline’s decision to invest further in data systems is particularly important in that context.
Every acquired practice may arrive with different CRM conventions, planning software, document structures, investment models, client-segmentation systems and service workflows. Without deliberate data integration, the parent company cannot easily see the combined business or create consistent client-service standards.
Poor integration also limits acquisition synergies. The consolidator may own several practices but still operate them like disconnected islands.
Better data can support shared workflows, marketing, service monitoring, business intelligence and capacity planning. It can also make future acquisitions easier because Coastline develops a repeatable migration process rather than reinventing integration with every deal.
That operational layer rarely appears in recruiting headlines, but it can determine whether acquisition-led growth remains profitable.
Susan Cevette And Julie Wendholt Show Why Niche Practices Can Survive Consolidation
The current Coastline roster provides an interesting window into the local-identity question.
Susan Cevette continues to appear under her own WatersEdge Wealth Management email identity, while Coastline’s biography emphasizes her long-standing work with women and her Minneapolis roots. Julie Wendholt’s current profile continues emphasizing values-based planning and divorce-related financial transitions rather than replacing that specialization with generic corporate wealth-management language.
That matters because niche expertise can be economically valuable.
A practice specializing in women navigating divorce may generate referrals from attorneys and other professionals. A women-focused planning practice may have a distinct community reputation developed over years. Forcing those businesses into one standardized identity could weaken the referral networks the consolidator paid to acquire.
The more sophisticated model is to centralize the invisible infrastructure while preserving the market-facing distinctions that clients value.
This resembles the broader supported-independence model across the industry. Advisors increasingly want access to centralized scale, technology, compliance and capital while retaining enough practice identity to make entrepreneurship meaningful.
The Same InvestmentNews Roundup Showed Two Other Ways Firms Were Growing
Coastline was only one part of the July 30 InvestmentNews advisor-moves report.
Raymond James added Jonathan Stanley, who came from Edward Jones with approximately $140 million in client assets. Stanley joined Raymond James Financial Services, the company’s independent advisor channel, and operated as president of Legacy Capital Group in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. His practice focuses on pre-retirees, retirees, business owners and corporate clients with an emphasis on multigenerational relationships.
LPL, meanwhile, added ProsperLane Financial, a Minnesota practice led by mother-and-son advisors Sheri Johnston and Jason Hotzler. The team reported approximately $250 million in advisory, brokerage and retirement-plan assets and came from Edward Jones and Thrivent. Its client base includes young professionals, small businesses and family-run companies.
Those moves belonged in the same roundup but represented different growth mechanisms.
Firm
Advisor Move
Approx. Assets
Growth Model
Coastline Wealth
Burke, Cevette and Wendholt
$430M+ announced
Acquisition/consolidation and succession-led growth
Raymond James
Jonathan Stanley
$140M
Independent-channel recruiting
LPL Financial
ProsperLane Financial
$250M
Broker-dealer/RIA platform recruiting
The distinction is useful because the wealth industry increasingly uses “recruiting” to describe transactions that may have very different economics.
Raymond James can gain assets by persuading an independent advisor to switch platforms without buying the advisor’s business. LPL can add an established family practice to its broker-dealer and RIA ecosystem. Coastline can use acquisitions and succession partnerships to become more deeply involved in the enterprise itself.
All three add assets.
They do not create the same ownership relationship.
Raymond James’ Stanley Recruit Fit A Much Larger Independent-Channel Strategy
Stanley’s $140 million move was comparatively small next to Coastline’s combined headline, but it fit Raymond James’ broader recruiting architecture.
RJFS allows advisors to operate independent local practices while using Raymond James for brokerage, advisory and platform infrastructure. That combination has helped the firm compete for advisors who want more autonomy without building their own full operating system.
NJ Financial News has documented how much stronger that recruiting engine became after 2025. Its analysis of the firm’s recruiting outlook showed Raymond James eventually producing record recruiting results while benefiting from disruption at Commonwealth and other competing platforms.
Stanley’s move therefore fits the traditional platform-choice side of advisor movement. The advisor retains an independently branded practice and changes the large institution supplying the infrastructure.
Coastline’s strategy goes one step further by making M&A and succession a more explicit part of the relationship.
ProsperLane Shows Why Family Practices Bring Their Own Succession Value
LPL’s ProsperLane addition provides another useful contrast because the practice already contained a next-generation relationship.
Sheri Johnston and her son Jason Hotzler brought more than 25 years of combined industry experience and emphasized their connection with other family-owned businesses. Hotzler said the practice’s own family-business history helps the team relate to clients operating multigenerational companies.
A mother-and-son advisory practice can also carry its own succession advantage.
The next generation is already inside the business. Clients can become familiar with both advisors before a retirement event forces a transfer, and the national platform does not necessarily need to find an external buyer when the senior advisor eventually steps away.
That contrasts with many acquisition candidates Coastline may pursue. Some mature practices need an outside solution precisely because no internal successor exists.
This is why succession should not be viewed as one standardized product. Some firms need financing for internal transfer, some need a merger partner and others need a full buyer. The platforms that can support several paths may have a recruiting advantage because advisors do not have to leave when their succession needs change.
Coastline’s Growth Creates A Different Kind Of Kestra Opportunity
Coastline’s expansion also benefits Kestra even though Coastline remains a separate member firm.
Every successful Coastline acquisition can bring additional advisors, assets and client relationships into the broader Kestra infrastructure. Kestra therefore does not need to source every individual advisor recruit directly if strong affiliated firms can function as local or specialized consolidators.
That creates a network effect.
A larger Kestra platform can support Coastline with infrastructure. A stronger Coastline can recruit and acquire more practices. Those practices add assets to the ecosystem, which can help justify further investment in technology and service.
The relationship resembles a broader trend among independent broker-dealers that are becoming more strategic about firms sitting between the national platform and end advisors. NJ Financial News’ coverage of Private Advisor Group showed LPL going further by taking a minority stake in one of those intermediary platforms.
Kestra’s relationship with Coastline is structurally different, but the strategic logic is comparable. Strong intermediary wealth firms can become acquisition and succession engines that deepen the national platform’s reach without requiring every advisor relationship to originate from headquarters.
The Bigger Risk Is Integration, Not Finding Another Acquisition
Coastline’s 2026 numbers demonstrate that the firm can find transactions.
The next strategic question is whether it can continue absorbing them without weakening service.
An acquisition program creates several forms of integration risk:
Technology risk: Legacy systems may not connect cleanly with Coastline and Kestra infrastructure.
Cultural risk: Advisors may resist centralized processes that feel different from how they previously operated.
Client-retention risk: Households can reconsider the relationship when ownership, custody or service arrangements change.
Staff risk: Employees may leave if the transaction changes responsibilities, compensation or local culture.
Compliance risk: Multiple offices and advisor histories increase the supervisory complexity of the broader organization.
Margin risk: Acquisitions can increase revenue while also increasing integration, technology and personnel expenses.
Succession risk: A deal designed to solve one founder’s retirement still requires a credible next-generation service model.
Those risks do not argue against Coastline’s strategy. They explain why the platform side of the business becomes more important with every transaction.
A consolidator can grow assets faster than it grows organizational quality for only so long. Eventually, service, data, technology and leadership capacity become the constraint.
Coastline’s planned investment in operating infrastructure suggests management recognizes that transition.
Clients Should Ask What “Acquired” Changes In Their Relationship
Advisor M&A can look very different from the client’s perspective than it does in an industry announcement.
The client may continue meeting the same advisor in the same office and see the same local practice name. Behind the scenes, however, ownership, technology, compliance, investment resources or the legal entities providing services may have changed.
That means clients should ask practical questions after an advisor joins a consolidator:
Will the same advisor and support staff remain?
Where will assets be held?
Are advisory agreements changing?
Will fees change?
Does the investment process remain the same?
Will new products or planning resources become available?
Who owns the practice after the transaction?
What happens when the senior advisor retires?
Which entity provides brokerage services?
Which entity provides investment advisory services?
Coastline’s current disclosure illustrates why those distinctions matter. Securities are offered through Kestra Investment Services, advisory services are offered through Kestra Advisory Services and Coastline remains separately identified as a member firm within Kestra’s Fusion Advisor Network.
Clients do not need to become experts in broker-dealer architecture. They should understand enough to know who is responsible for the services they receive and whether the transaction changes their costs or experience.
Coastline’s $5 Billion Scale Changes The Next Acquisition Conversation
A firm with $1 billion and a firm with $5 billion do not enter an advisor-succession conversation with the same credibility.
At roughly $5 billion, Coastline can point to a larger operating organization, numerous completed advisor transitions and a national footprint. It can show prospective sellers that other experienced practices have already joined and that the company has built dedicated infrastructure around integration.
That track record can reduce perceived transition risk.
An advisor considering a sale may be more comfortable joining a consolidator that has already moved dozens of practices than becoming an early test case for a new acquisition program.
Scale can therefore become self-reinforcing. More deals create more integration experience. More experience improves the recruiting story, which can produce more deals.
The risk is equally self-reinforcing if service deteriorates. A few unhappy acquired practices can become powerful references for prospective sellers considering competing firms.
For Coastline, the next phase of growth will depend less on proving that it can buy practices and more on proving that those practices remain successful after the deal.
Bottom Line: Coastline Is Turning Advisor Succession Into A National Growth Strategy
The July 2025 InvestmentNews report described Coastline Wealth Management adding three teams with more than $430 million and crossing $4.3 billion in client assets. Kelly Burke expanded the firm’s presence in Florida and North Carolina, Susan Cevette brought a women-focused Minnesota practice and Julie Wendholt added specialized planning expertise in New York.
That was the news.
The more important story became visible later.
Coastline said in 2026 that it had added 18 advisory teams and approximately $1.7 billion in new client assets during the broader September 2024 to September 2025 period, eventually reaching approximately $5 billion, 18 offices and more than 90 team members. Its expansion stretched across advisors from Lincoln Financial, UBS, Ameriprise, Osaic and other platforms, with acquisitions ranging from relatively small practices to several-hundred-million-dollar teams.
The pattern shows how wealth-management consolidation is expanding below the mega-RIA level.
Coastline does not need to buy a $5 billion RIA to become a $5 billion platform. It can assemble that scale through repeated transactions with practices whose founders want more infrastructure, growth support or a succession solution.
Garrett Taylor’s background makes that strategy particularly logical. Coastline’s founder has spent years working on advisor succession and practice transactions, making M&A less of an add-on and more of a core growth capability.
Kestra adds another layer by providing the broader broker-dealer and advisory infrastructure beneath Coastline’s advisor relationships. That lets Coastline focus more heavily on acquisition, integration, client service and enterprise value while operating inside a much larger independent wealth ecosystem.
The model still has to prove itself after the announcements. Rapid acquisition growth can strain technology, culture, compliance and service. Advisors who were promised independence will watch how much autonomy survives. Clients will judge whether familiar relationships remain intact. Employees will learn whether the larger organization makes their jobs easier or more complicated.
Those are the real integration tests.
But the strategic direction is already clear. Coastline’s $430 million recruiting trifecta was not merely a good month for advisor additions.
It was a preview of a firm trying to turn one of wealth management’s biggest demographic problems, advisor succession, into a repeatable national growth engine.
Frequently Asked Questions About Coastline Wealth Management’s Advisor Additions
What Did Coastline Wealth Management Announce In July 2025?
Coastline Wealth Management announced that it had added three advisor teams led by Kelly Burke, Susan Cevette and Julie Wendholt, bringing more than $430 million in assets under management and more than 1,000 client relationships to the platform. Burke’s practice operated in Florida and North Carolina, Cevette was based in Minnesota and Wendholt joined from Ameriprise in New York. Coastline said the additions expanded its national reach and pushed total client assets above $4.3 billion at the time, while the firm positioned the transactions as part of a broader strategy involving advisor acquisitions, succession support and enterprise-level infrastructure.
How Large Is Coastline Wealth Management Now?
Coastline said in a May 2026 expansion update that it managed approximately $5 billion in total assets, operated 18 offices across 13 states and had more than 90 team members. The firm said it had added 18 advisory teams and approximately $1.7 billion in new client assets from September 2024 through September 2025. Those figures show that the three-team July 2025 announcement was part of a much broader expansion period rather than an isolated recruiting event, although Coastline’s current totals may continue to change as the firm completes additional acquisitions or advisor transitions.
What Is Coastline’s Relationship With Kestra Financial?
Coastline operates within Kestra Financial’s broader independent wealth-management ecosystem. Coastline’s current disclosure states that securities are offered through Kestra Investment Services and investment advisory services through Kestra Advisory Services, while Coastline is a member firm of Fusion Advisor Network, a platform of Kestra Investment Services. The arrangement gives Coastline access to larger broker-dealer, advisory and technology infrastructure while Coastline maintains its own advisor-facing brand and acquisition strategy, creating a layered model in which Coastline can focus heavily on advisor growth, succession and practice integration.
Why Is Succession Planning Important To Coastline’s Growth Strategy?
Succession planning is important because many mature advisory firms have valuable recurring client relationships but lack an obvious internal buyer when the founder wants to retire or reduce responsibilities. Coastline founder Garrett Taylor also founded Advisor Successions and has extensive experience working on advisory-practice acquisitions, tuck-ins and succession transactions. Coastline itself says it focuses on helping advisors preserve legacy, improve enterprise value and create long-term transition strategies, which can make the firm attractive to advisors who want liquidity or more infrastructure without abruptly abandoning their clients or staff.
What Should Clients Ask If Their Advisor Joins Coastline?
Clients should ask what changes in the practical relationship rather than focusing only on the acquisition announcement. Important questions include whether the same advisor and support staff will continue serving them, where assets will be held, whether fees or advisory agreements will change, what additional planning or investment resources become available and how succession will work if the senior advisor retires. Clients should also understand the underlying legal relationships because Coastline operates with securities and advisory services provided through Kestra entities, even when the local advisor or practice maintains its own client-facing identity.
Further Reading
InvestmentNews advisor roundup: The original July 2025 report covering Coastline’s three advisor additions, Raymond James’ Jonathan Stanley recruit and LPL’s ProsperLane Financial move.
Coastline expansion: Coastline and Kestra’s announcement detailing the $430 million-plus expansion, 1,000 client relationships and the firm’s acquisition and succession strategy.
2026 growth update: Coastline’s later update showing 18 advisor additions, $1.7 billion in new assets and approximately $5 billion in total assets.
Coastline advisor team: Coastline’s current advisor roster and biographies, including Susan Cevette, Julie Wendholt and the broader operating team.
RIA growth models: Related NJ Financial News coverage comparing acquisition-heavy RIA expansion with partnership-led growth models.
Private Advisor Group: Related analysis of how national wealth firms are investing in advisor ecosystems to address succession and M&A.
Client ownership: Related NJ Financial News coverage on broker-dealers moving closer to advisor enterprise value through book purchases, minority stakes and succession capital.
Recruiting outlook: Related coverage of Raymond James’ broader independent-channel recruiting momentum after the Jonathan Stanley move.
