$210M financial advisor serving LGBTQ+ clients drops Ameriprise for LPL

More than two decades after starting with Ameriprise as an intern, financial advisor Matthew Edwards has launched his own boutique advisory practice with a different firm: LPL Financial.

LPL Financial

Edwards moved from Ameriprise — where he managed about $210 million in advisory, brokerage and retirement-plan assets — to LPL in Sarasota, Florida, where he noted in an interview with Financial Planning that he is working with marketing experts on developing a specific "doing business as" name for the newly independent firm. LPL announced the addition of Edwards on April 2; he officially joined on Feb. 20, according to FINRA BrokerCheck. 

READ MORE: LPL's Atria deal to supercharge firm's growth past 25,000 advisors

In going to LPL's brokerage, registered investment advisory firm and custodian, he left a team that he had started with in 1999 at an internship. Having planned to go to law school, that internship "changed my trajectory," Edwards said. 

Today his practice focuses specifically on multigenerational planning and serving LGBTQ+ clients, and he's currently contacting his customers to move them over "one client at a time" and "one account at a time" to LPL, he noted.

"I was just really focused on starting my own shop," Edwards said of the decision, describing it as the result of seeking a "more boutique approach to planning and investment management."

While he "started the process thinking I was going to be with Ameriprise," Edwards believed he "owed myself a conversation or three" in performing due diligence with other firms, he added. LPL's support services, open architecture and tools and resources won out. "LPL really quickly rose to the top just from a culture perspective and from an overall approach just felt like home."

READ MORE: LPL continues recruiting run with $1B ex-Merrill team

Representatives for Ameriprise, whose advisor headcount climbed by a net 98 year over year in 2023 to 10,367, declined to comment on Edwards' move. Ameriprise added about 100 advisors with $18 billion in client assets from Comerica Bank in its largest recruiting pickup last year.

LPL's headcount is on the path to top at least 25,000 advisors next year on the strength of its giant pending acquisition of Atria Wealth Solutions and massive recruiting wins with the wealth businesses of Prudential Financial and Wintrust Financial. The highly competitive recruiting landscape brings wins and losses to every firm — even the one with the industry's biggest headcount.

"We welcome Matt to the LPL community and are honored he turned to us to help elevate his new practice," LPL Executive Vice President of Business Development Scott Posner said in a statement. "With our vertically integrated business model where everything functions in one ecosystem, we can provide enhanced experiences to advisors at scale, build differentiated capabilities and reduce costs for clients, which helps set them apart in a competitive environment."

READ MORE: LPL adding $16B Wintrust program in recruiting grab from Wells Fargo

Edwards' team includes two paraplanners and another support staff member who is the office coordinator, Edwards noted. After beginning his career 25 years ago with his prior team, he had trained and advanced up the ladder to become an advisor. He volunteers with a local food bank and Equity Florida, an LGBTQ+ civil rights advocacy group where he's a member of the steering committee for the organization's annual fundraiser. 

Edwards left Ameriprise under the rules of the Broker Protocol, which means he could only take limited levels of client information from the prior firm.

"This is not easy, or everybody would do it. But it's worth it," Edwards said. "You put the investment and the time in, but it's building something I can actually see and wrap my arms around."