LPL Financial's largest deal of the year is paying off, as the big branch
Financial advisors David Rimkus, Donald Sharko and Thomas Phelan rebranded their Orland Park, Illinois-based practice as Harbor Lighthouse Wealth Management under their move from LaSalle St. Securities to LPL and
LPL made a deal with Financial Resources founder Bruce Miller to acquire the branch — which includes about 800 financial advisors with 85 banks and other institutions managing $40 billion in client assets — for
"I've been thinking about what happens to my business when I'm gone. I thought we were lacking in my ability to create a succession plan that made sense," said Rimkus, 58, who founded his team 25 years ago after leaving a bank. "We can have our own identity yet still get the comforts of a much larger firm."
Representatives for LaSalle St., which is the No. 28 firm on
The pending M&A deal between LPL and Financial Resources makes "a good fit for each other," according to Andy Kalbaugh, a former
"They're doing great," Kalbaugh said. "It was a good place to step out, because I knew they were trending in a good direction."
Rimkus has spent the past 34 years with LaSalle St. and a bank it acquired in the '90s. After that deal, he started his own independent practice located close to where he grew up in the southwest suburbs of Chicago. Most of the clients come from the same area, although they have since spanned the country. Besides the three advisors, the practice includes his daughter Emily Malfeo and Client Services Associate Debra Lapaglia. Rimkus credited Malfeo, the practice's operations manager, with preparing the team for the transition to LPL on Dec. 8.
"Sharing similar values with our clients being at the core of everything we do, we look forward to helping them take their business to the next level with our expansive tools and resource offerings," Financial Resources President Steve Lank said in a statement.
The process of moving to a new brokerage and branch reminded Rimkus of cleaning out a garage, he said, adding that the "change has been very invigorating for me." The practice built its first ever website, where it will post content that has been vetted by LPL's compliance teams and create "more touchpoints" with existing clients and newer, younger prospective customers through emails, LPL-powered chat capabilities and texting, Rimkus said.
"I want our existing clients to be happier with their platform, and I want our existing clients to view us as the primary source for all of their assets — not just stocks and bonds," he said.
