Kintra Wealth CEO Andy Harris on Building an Interdependent RIA Model After Commonwealth-LPL Deal

Kintra Wealth, an employee-owned registered investment advisor with about $4.3 billion in client assets, is launching a major recruiting push by selling a new model of “interdependence” to wealth management teams, a direct challenge to the industry’s dominant consolidation-by-acquisition playbook. The firm, based in Williamsport, Pa., launched in April 2024 from a combination of six wealth teams with employees in eight states across the U.S. and made its first acquisition in October, with more in the pipeline for 2026.

A New Path Forward

Kintra’s origins are tied to a major industry shift. Kintra CEO Andy Harris and his team were set to be the first movers on a new fee-only RIA channel called Continuum, which was being launched by Commonwealth Financial Network in late 2024. However, two weeks before the planned client transition, Commonwealth announced its acquisition by LPL Financial, effectively scrapping the Continuum program. What we found was that the program we had signed up for would be modified heavily and deviate from the vision we had bought into, and it was best for us to carry on, transferring that trust in the vision to people we trusted ultimately, which is ourselves, as opposed to handing that over to anybody else, Harris said.

Building an Interdependent Model

In the wake of the Commonwealth-LPL deal, Harris spoke to other departing advisors about teaming up, leading to the creation of Kintra. The firm was founded on what Harris calls a model of “interdependence.” We loved being part of our former firm, but we found some challenges with being on a platform primarily built for retail clientele, Harris explained, noting his firm transitioned to an RIA model in 2019 to gain access to private investments and alternative strategies. Harris said Kintra sought its own compliance framework built for the firm, rather than one catering to thousands of advisors.

Kintra Builds Dual-Platform Technology

Kintra has built its operating platform on a combination of Orion and Fidelity technology while maintaining the ability to be multi-custodial. Harris explained his team transitioned to an operating platform called EOS in 2021 after identifying technology constraints with their former firm’s native platform. We did due diligence and looked at Tamarack, Black Diamond, Orion, Addepar—all the platforms—and ultimately decided the best place to land was both with Orion and Fidelity, while wanting to maintain the opportunity to be multi-custodial, he stated. Kintra Wealth is now actively recruiting wealth management teams to join its interdependent model.

Worth a look