Wells Fargo, LPL and Rockefeller have big week: Advisor Moves

February 7, 2025 4:06 PM

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Recruiting and M&A deals are regularly roiling the wealth management industry.

This week, Wells Fargo, Rockefeller, LPL Financial, Osaic, Mercer Global Advisors and EP Wealth can all claim some wins. Read about them below.

Kristina Blokhin - stock.adobe.com

Wells Fargo scores $1.6B team from UBS

Wells Fargo Advisors has pulled over a nine-person team called Broadleaf Wealth Management from UBS in California.

Broadleaf Wealth Management oversees roughly $1.6 billion in assets from its offices in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Century City. The team generates nearly $11 million in revenue a year.

Broadleaf is led by the financial advisors David Tannenbaum, Robert Zeiger, David Justman and Edward Tannenbaum, David's father. Supporting them are Sam Callari, Rose Faranal, Mike Tavitian, Vidal Torres and Ty Cremer.

All four advisors joined UBS in 2015 after spending years at J.P. Morgan Securities.

"Over the past few years, we've invested in our localized teams to bring the firm's resources closer to our advisors, allowing them to more easily access Wells Fargo's full balance sheet well beyond investments," Kevin Smith, Wells Fargo Los Angeles branch manager.

UBS warned in an earnings call earlier this week that it could see advisors heading for the exits in 2025 in response to recent modifications to its pay policies. The changes largely reduced compensation for low-end producers and some advisors on teams.

It was unclear if the Broadleaf Wealth team's departure, first reported by AdvisorHub, was a reaction to those policies. UBS ended 2024 with 5,968 advisors in its Americas division, down from 6,117 at the close of 2023.

Rockefeller draws $1B team from Janney

Rockefeller Capital Management has pulled an eight-person advisory team from its industry rival Janney Montgomery Scott.

Rockefeller Global Family Office announced last week on LinkedIn that it had recruited a team named Pollard Bryan Carl Wealth Partners to its offices in Saratoga Springs, New York. The group is led by Jeff Pollard, Raymond Bryan, John Carl and Jackie Dufresne. Also on the team are senior financial planner Dedra Bust, wealth manager Buffy Leonard, financial planning and investment associate Luke Saddlemire and client operations associate Colleen Garcia.

Pollard, Bryan and Carl came to Janney from Wells Fargo, which they all joined in 2015 after previously being at Janney. Dufresne came to Janney in 2023 after spending 14 years at Commonwealth Financial and six years at Edward Jones and Smith Barney.

Janney announced in July that it had entered into an agreement to be bought by the private equity giant KKR. The deal closed in the fourth quarter of last year.

Rockefeller has also recently pulled teams from Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan, according to media reports.

LPL picks up $600M team from Osaic

LPL Financial continues to go to the Osaic well to draw wealth management teams.

LPL announced this week that it had pulled over a five-member team doing business as Charter Oak Wealth Partners. The group had formerly managed roughly $600 million at LPL's independent broker-dealer rival Osaic.

Charter Oak Wealth Partners was founded in 2016 by Gary Paul in Hartford County, Connecticut. Paul is joined by his fellow advisors Gary Salva, Bill Matzinger and Chris Scuderi, as well as client relationship manager Lori Tedone.

Paul was registered with Ameriprise from 2005 to 2014, when he joined Osaic (previously Advisor Group), according to BrokerCheck. LPL has pulled several big teams in recent months from Osaic, which has been reorganizing by consolidating its eight formerly separately named broker-dealers. Last week, it announced it had brought over a 12- person team formerly managing $1 billion at Osaic. In December, it said it had drawn a team previously managing $540 million at Osaic and announced in September the recruitment of a group formerly managing $150 million.

Osaic draws $360M RIA to its employee channel

Osaic has brought a 40-year advisory practice on to its channel for direct employees.

Osaic announced this week that it had added Payant Wealth Management Group, an RIA out of Sun City Center, Florida, to the channel it started for direct employees in 2023. The firm is led by chair and CEO Tom Payant and has $360 million under management.

Among his team are the financial advisors Glenn Krcmaric, Jay Mulligan and Jonathan Wilkins. Payant was affiliated with Raymond James for 18 years before moving in 2006 over to SagePoint Financial, one of eight broker-dealers now consolidated under the Osaic brand.

Payant said in a statement that moving his firm to Osaic's employment channel was a way to gain assurance about its future.

"Like many entrepreneurial financial advisors, I have spent my entire career building my practice to support my clients' current and future goals. Affiliating with Osaic's W2 channel has given me the peace of mind that my wife, my colleagues and our clients will be set up for success," he said.

Osaic is owned by the private equity firm Reverence Capital Partners.

LPL grabs $345M team from Ameriprise

LPL Financial has picked up a former Ameriprise team working out of Scottsdale, Arizona.

Jared Roskelley and Kyle Robertson are bringing their Jackson/Roskelley Wealth Advisors practice over to LPL's broker-dealer, RIA and custodial services, LPL announced this week. The team had formerly managed roughly $345 million at Ameriprise.

Jackson/Roskelley was founded in 1994 by Bob Jackson, who brought Roskelley in as a shareholder in 2006. Roskelley eventually became president and CEO of the firm and Jackson retired. Robertson joined in 2015 and now holds the title of managing director.

Before joining Ameriprise in 2023, Roskelley was affiliated with Raymond James for seven years, Cambridge Investment Research for nine years before, after being with various firms at the start of his career. Robertson also started at Ameriprise in 2023 and was at Raymond James for seven years before that. He too came to Raymond James from Cambridge Investment, which he joined in 2015 from Charles Schwab.

LPL and Ameriprise have been embroiled in a series of lawsuits over the past year over their recruiting practices. Ameriprise took a broadside shot at LPL in July, accusing its industry rival of engaging in a "widespread pattern and practice of harvesting and misappropriating Ameriprise's private, confidential client information and trade secrets." The two firms eventually agreed to bring in a third-party forensic consultant to preserve evidence in the dispute pending its resolution in FINRA arbitration.

Mercer Advisors scoops up $660M RIA

The serial acquirer Mercer Global Advisors is bringing its family-office services to the Nashville, Tennessee area through the acquisition of an RIA.

Mercer announced this week that it had bought Gallatin, Tennessee-based Financial Partners Group. The firm manages $660 million in assets and is led by founding partners Bo Bowling and Scott Paschal. It specializes in retirement planning and wealth transfer. Joining Mercer Advisors gives it access to more investment management and planning resources, as well as specialists in estate and tax planning, among other services.

Mercer Global Advisors has its headquarters in Denver and received private equity backing from Oak Hill Capital, Genstar Capital and Altas Partners. According to its website, it has $69 billion in assets under management and 110 regional offices.

Mercer also recently announced it had hired Alisa Maute to be its head of client development, leading a team of 100. Maute had previously been an executive vice president at LPL Financial.

EP Wealth buys RIA with $500M in AUM

EP Wealth Advisors, a private-equity backed fee-only RIA, is moving into Tennessee with the purchase of Criterion Capital Advisors.

EP Wealth, which has $31 billion in assets, announced this week that it had bought Nashville-based Criterion Capital for an undisclosed amount. The deal marks EP Wealth's first move into Tennessee.

Criterion was founded in 2005 and is led by Allan Horner and his partners, Mark Pierce and Scott Freeman. EP Wealth receives backing from the financial services holding company Wealth Partners Capital Group and has sold a minority ownership stake to the private equity firm Berkshire Partners.

Also last week, EP Wealth announced it had hired back April Rosenberry to take on a new role as managing director of advanced planning. Rosenberry had served as director of estate planning at EP Wealth from 2021 to 2023 before leaving to join the RIA Signature Estate & Investment Advisors, or SEIA.