Ex-Wells Fargo team seeks greater independence at LPL: Advisor Moves

LPL Financial has pulled over a team of advisors who say they are seeking even greater independence than they could find at Wells Fargo's channel for independent advisors.

Jim Murray, Larry Bernstein, Abby Goldstein, Michael Kazmer, Brett Goldberg and Wesley Wong are all joining LPL from Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network, the firm's independent channel, also known as FiNet. The team, which goes by the name Townsgate Wealth Management, had previously managed about $1.15 billion at Wells.

The team said in a press release that they had been searching for a new home for about a year. Murray said Thursday that he and his colleagues were looking for a firm that was founded with the goal of supporting independence.

"With LPL you have a firm that was started for independent advisors like us," he told Financial Planning. "It's in their DNA, in their nature."

Murray said he has found that the tech and computer systems at other firms haven't always been as integrated as he could wish. At LPL, by contrast, "everything talks to everything else," he said.

"It just allows us to spend more time in front of our clients and developing our business and not worrying about how hard it's going to be to use the system and get things done," Murray said. 

Murray and Bernstein founded Townsgate Wealth Management in 2016 in Westlake Village, California. Bernstein, Goldstein and Kazmer all joined Wells Fargo in 2012, and Murray, Goldberg and Wong came along four years later. Before working at Wells, all of them had worked either at UBS or the Bank of America subsidiaries Merrill and U.S. Trust.

Townsgate Wealth Management works with high net worth clients, families and business owners on everything from portfolio management to fixed-income analysis and retirement planning.

LPL reported last month that it ended 2024 with 28,888 advisors, 6,228 more than in the previous year.

Cetera Financial Group has completed its planned purchase of Concourse Financial Group Securities, its latest acquisition of an insurance firm's wealth management business.

Concourse, which has 350 advisors and $4 billion in assets under management, had previously gone by the name ProEquities. Before Cetera's purchase, announced in October, it had belonged to Protective Life Corporation, itself a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Dai-ichi Life Holdings. Concourse specializes in offering insurance-related services and advice along with financial planning and asset management.

Cetera has roughly 12,000 financial advisors and $235 billion in assets under management. Its other recent purchases include Securian Financial Group's wealth management business, a 2023 deal that brought in $50 billion in assets. 

In 2021, it bought parts of the independent financial planning channel of Voya Financial Advisors, adding $37 billion in assets. That business has since been renamed Cetera Wealth Partners.

LPL Financial has recruited a pair of advisors who will start a practice called Servant Path Wealth Partners in its employee channel.

Joe Young and Dustin "Ryne" Stokes are joining LPL from Synovus Securities, a registered broker-dealer. They had previously managed roughly $400 million.

Young started at Synovus in Columbus, Georgia, in 2005. Stokes started in financial services in 2014 at Synovus after working several years for the Social Security Administration.

Their practice draws on their Christian faith and they specialize in offering in financial planning, investment management, insurance, tax, retirement and estate planning and advice on charitable giving.