A billion-dollar team with nine planners left Edward Jones for Commonwealth Financial Network with a goal of recruiting and acquiring its way to 1,000 financial advisors over the next 20 years.
Managing partners Todd Vincent and Dylan Ripley of Temple, Texas-based Cedarwood Financial Partners lead a team of 17 employees with five offices in two states. In an interview with Financial Planning after the Jan. 17
"They had the toolbox that we needed to make the vision that we had that, we thought at one point, may not be attainable anywhere," Ripley said.
Vincent, who started in the industry 27 years ago when his father-in-law hired him to the Edward Jones office northeast of Austin in Central Texas, recalled that Commonwealth was the only firm that had its top leadership at recruiting meetings on Zoom. When Vincent and Ripley visited the wealth management firm's headquarters in Waltham, Massachusetts, Vincent noticed a coffee mug in its conference room inscribed with the words "Go where you grow."
"I felt like when we were interviewing them, they were really interviewing us," Vincent said. "Their attitude is always, 'What are you trying to accomplish and how can we do it?,' which is just refreshing — to say, 'I hear you and we'll do whatever it takes to make it happen.'"
Representatives for Edward Jones, which has
The M&A deals and recruiting moves that send
"Do you have any idea how much work it really takes to do this the right way?" VanArsdale said. "It is a tremendous amount of work, and if you want to do it the right way, you better be ready."
The fact that it's a "personal decision" adds up to the toughest part of the switch, her daughter, planner Lisa VanArsdale, agreed. Despite the fact that they had to leave their longtime brokerage LPL Financial where she said they "love the people," the pair made their choice.
"You know your clients the best, so you know where they belong," Lisa VanArsdale said. "You know when it's time for a change."
Cedarwood formally switched to Commonwealth's brokerage and registered investment advisory firm on Nov. 29, according to FINRA BrokerCheck.
In addition to Vincent and Ripley, an 8-year industry veteran, the departed team includes a vice president of marketing, Jeremy Self; a chief operations officer, Alex Murphy; a vice president of investment solutions, Tim Hall; a vice president of business development, David Boothby; and another planner, Todd Vincent's brother Troy. With other offices in Austin and Houston as well as Jamestown and Olean, New York, the team manages nearly $1 billion in client assets.
"Cedarwood has a clear vision for deliberate, purposeful growth that we share and a conscious commitment to fostering culture and connectedness that we're very much in sync with, too," Becca Hajjar, Commonwealth's chief business development officer, said in a statement. "We're delighted to support their evolution and look forward to helping them shine in the independent space."
The term "independent" in wealth management refers to financial advisors who are 1099 contractors, in this case, to Commonwealth, rather than direct W-2 employees of brokerages such as Edward Jones. Independent advisors get more control over their own business and branding along with higher payouts, while employee brokers get more layers of resources and services from the corporate headquarters like real estate and administrative operations.
For Cedarwood, the new setup enables more flexibility around eventual succession questions and the technology used by the firm, as well as around its plan of expansion over the next two decades.
The "Diamond"
"We have a growth mindset, but our plan is to do it with a family-like culture," he said.
