LPL Financial's breakaway channel picked up its largest team ever in terms of client assets, with the addition of five financial advisors who launched a newly independent firm.
Angie Ostendarp, Jordan Raniszeski, Mary Sherrill Ware, Mitch Mayfield and Jeff Vandiver had operated as part of three different teams at Wells Fargo Advisors before bringing their $1.45 billion in combined client assets to LPL Strategic Wealth Services. The advisors opened a new firm, Charlotte, North Carolina-based Carnegie Private Wealth, LPL
Their move marks 29 teams that have gone to LPL's Strategic Wealth division in the nearly three years since
The work of running a newly independent, advisor-owned business turned into a "stumbling block" when the Carnegie advisors began assessing their options, Raniszeski said in an interview. LPL's channel offering a more supportive form of independence with extra aid from the corporate office emerged as a better fit for the newly formed team with a dozen total employees and advisors with 120 years of collective experience.
"We just felt like we were limited in what we could do, so that kind of started us down the path of exploring independence in the first place," Raniszeski said. "That was a little scary for us when we already have a large team."
Industry news publication AdvisorHub
Representatives for Wells Fargo, which
LPL
As part of Strategic Wealth, LPL's corporate office takes a larger share of an advisory practice's revenue in exchange for providing a greater depth of business and operational services that wirehouse teams are used to receiving, such as payroll, real estate and marketing.
Large teams like Carnegie find greater value in LPL's consultative services than in compensation offered by it or rivals, according to Samantha Sferas, the chief operating officer of advisor recruiting company Terrana Group. That's what has made the firm successful in attracting many "tenured advisors" to the Strategic Wealth channel, she said.
"It's not just selling on price," Sferas said. "They're not interested in pushing the numbers because it's about the long-term relationship."
Two of the Carnegie advisors had known each other since starting their careers together in a Wachovia Bank training program. Ostendarp had been acquainted with the other brokers for decades there and at Wells Fargo after it acquired Wachovia, according to Raniszeski. LPL gave them a "nudge" to consider teaming up when the three practices led by him, Ostendarp and Sherrill Ware were planning their next steps, he said.
Asked for the key takeaways for other advisors thinking about a similar move, Raniszeski admitted that he "didn't know what was out there" amid different kinds of independence available today. He recommended that teams go through a "deep due diligence process." Carnegie worked with a consultant to help them down the path.
Raniszeski suggested that advisors "have confidence" in their relationships with clients carrying through to a new firm, a challenge that often causes teams to think twice about going elsewhere.
"Clients love their advisors, they really do," he said. "They want to continue the relationship and continue working with you."
