Modera Wealth Management has expanded its footprint to the West Coast with the acquisition of RS Crum, a Newport Beach, California-based fee-only planning firm managing approximately $750 million in assets. The deal, announced this week, gives Modera its first office in Southern California and adds more than 250 client households to its roster.
RS Crum, founded in 1976, is one of the oldest fee-only planning practices in the country. Its nine-person team will join Modera, including certified financial planners Mark Rylance, Jon Theriault, and Daniel Sexton, who will serve as wealth managers and principals. Rylance emphasized the firm's commitment to preserving its boutique approach, saying, "RS Crum has been in business for 50 years, and we felt a real responsibility to find a partner who will keep doing things the way we always have: providing fee-only advice with a personal touch and a boutique feel."
Modera CEO Tom Orecchio noted that the firm already had a client base in the region. "We work with clients across the country, and we have a number of clients in Southern California," he said. The acquisition follows two smaller deals announced over the summer: Northstar Financial Planners in Plantation, Florida, which brought $311.6 million in assets in June, and Marathon Wealth Management in Albany, New York, adding approximately $155 million in August. Modera now reports $20 billion in assets under advisement as of September 30.
Vince Curtin, who joined Modera in August 2025 to lead mergers and acquisitions, has positioned the firm as an integrator rather than a pure consolidator. "We are very specifically an integrator. We're not just building a platform," he told InvestmentNews last year. "We lead with planning and we have a similar investment philosophy, which is evidence-based investing." This approach comes amid a crowded M&A market; Echelon Partners counted 125 RIA transactions in the third quarter and projects 510 deals for 2026. The average seller in that quarter managed $1.7 billion in assets, more than double RS Crum's size.
A key selling point for RS Crum was access to Modera's proprietary AI platform, Mira, which was unveiled in October. Mira is an agentic AI system that uses software agents to execute multistep tasks, developed over two years with technology partner OnTrade. It has been in use across Modera since July. The platform consolidates client data and documents into a single household-level system of record, which Modera says will help incoming firms integrate their data onto a common system. President Joe McCuine noted, "We believe this integrated approach will also appeal to firms that have seen limited benefits from adopting individual AI tools without a broader enterprise strategy."
The deal highlights a growing trend of RIAs using technology as a differentiator in M&A. As agentic AI gains traction in wealth management, firms like Modera are leveraging proprietary platforms to attract sellers. The move also comes as AI platforms compete for advisors' back-office work, with significant venture funding flowing into the space.
For RS Crum, the partnership ensures continuity for its clients while gaining access to Modera's resources. The firm's team will remain in Newport Beach, and Modera plans to use the office as a hub for further expansion in the region. Orecchio said the firm is "patient" in its acquisition strategy, focusing on cultural fit and long-term integration rather than rapid scale.
With this deal, Modera now operates in multiple states, including New Jersey, Florida, New York, and California. The firm's emphasis on planning and evidence-based investing, combined with its AI infrastructure, appears to be resonating with sellers looking for a stable home. As the RIA M&A market remains active, Modera's approach may serve as a model for mid-sized firms seeking to grow without losing their identity.
