Washington Wealth Snags Breakaways With $200M AUM

Washington Wealth Management, the hybrid RIA that recently left LPL for a less prominent independent broker-dealer in a bid to snag more wirehouse advisors, has added two breakaways to its alliance. 

The two, with combined client assets of $200 million, bring the San Diego-based RIA’s total number of breakaways to seven for the year, says Washington Wealth’s CEO, Rob Bartenstein.

“The pipeline is full. The interest is sky high,” says Bartenstein, who says he is in discussions with more potential wirehouse defectors. “We’re in five markets now. I think we’ll be in two or three more by the end of the year.”

The firm has offices in Brea, Calif.; Los Angeles; San Diego; Westport, Conn., and Middleburg, Va.

After predicting robust growth two years ago, Washington Wealth slowed its onboarding of new advisors last year while in negotiations to be acquired by independent broker-dealer NFP Advisor Services, the No. 15 firm in Financial Planning's annual FP50 ranking of IBDs. Washington Wealth joined NFP in March after just a year and a half with LPL Financial.

With the transaction behind it, the firm now has a strong balance sheet to attract more wirehouse advisors who crave independence, but also want to continue working for large companies, Bartenstein says.

Former Wells Fargo advisor Nancy Tuininga brought her $72 million AUM practice, Prosperity Point Wealth Management based in San Diego, to Washington Wealth as a stand-alone independent practice.

Michael Lee, who had $130 million in AUM at Morgan Stanley, has joined a Washington Wealth affiliated firm, Pacilio Wealth Management in Westport, Conn.

Lee brings institutional advisory experience to Pacilio while Tuininga runs a more traditional wealth management practice focused on individuals and families, Bartenstein says.

Washington Wealth is seeing an increase in advisors like Lee who are willing to leave wirehouses as solo practitioners to join the hybrid-RIA’s affiliate firms, he says.

The additions bring the firm’s total AUM across all its firms to $1 billion, the company said in a statement.

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