Advisor moves: Rockefeller, LPL recruit; Hightower CEO stepping down

February 14, 2025 2:42 PM

Portrait of cheerful young manager handshake with new employee.

Recruiting and M&A deals are regularly roiling the financial planning industry.

This week, LPL Financial picked up a couple of new teams and RIA aggregators Corient and Prime Capital entered into some big acquisitions. Also, the CEO of Hightower Advisors announced his retirement plans. Read about it below.

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Rockefeller draws $1B team from Stifel

Rockefeller Financial Management has recruited a large advisory practice formerly affiliated with Stifel Financial in New York.

The Broderick Mingelgreen Group had formerly managed about $1 billion for Stifel. The team is led by Jack Broderick and his son, John, as well as Jason Mingelgreen.

Jack Broderick and Mingelgreen were at Barclays Capital from 2011 to 2015, when the firm's U.S. brokerage business was acquired by Stifel. Before Barclays, Broderick was at Credit Suisse from 1996 to 2012 and at Lehman Brothers for eight years before that.

The industry publication AdvisorHub first reported the team's hiring, which was confirmed by a Rockefeller spokesperson.

Bloomberg News

LPL draws $630M team from AIG subsidiary

LPL Financial has pulled an advisory duo from Corebridge Financial, a subsidiary of the insurance giant AIG.

Carmen and Chris Lex, a pair of brothers, are joining LPL's offices in Marlton, New Jersey. They had previously managed $360 million at Corebridge, an AIG subsidiary formerly known as Valic.

The two joined forces in 2014 and now specialize in financial planning, including pension and Social Security analysis. The firm they've started at LPL is called Lex Wealth Management.

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LPL draws ex-Ameriprise team to its employee channel

LPL Financial has brought over a pair of advisors formerly managing roughly $300 million at Amerprise.

Steve Schulte and Melissa Toler Short are joining Linsco, LPL's channel for direct employees. Schulte has been in the business for 25 years and was previously with LPL from 2010 to 2014 before joining Ameriprise. Short joined the industry in 2006 and started at Ameriprise in 2016.

The advisors, who work out of Yuma, Arizona, met at their local Rotary Club. They are known for working with accounting firms and attorneys to provide clients with holistic financial services.

Prime Capital moves into Atlanta area with $1B acquisition

The RIA aggregator Prime Capital Financial is moving into the Atlanta area with its purchase of Sugarloaf Wealth Management.

Sugarloaf manages roughly $1 billion in client assets and has its headquarters in the Atlanta suburb of Duluth, Georgia. Sugarloaf was founded in 1989 and now offers financial planning, investment management, risk management, retirement and tax strategies, insurance planning and advice on charitable giving.

Prime Capital Financial has roughly $30 billion under management and has its headquarters in Overland Park, Kansas. It has 70 offices in the U.S.

Corient scoops up $600M RIA

The RIA aggregator Corient is extending its presence in Pennsylvania with its acquisition of a registered investment advisor in Pittsburgh.

Miami-based Corient announced last week that it had bought Rootstock Advisors, which has roughly $600 million under management. Rootstock specializes in working with ultrahigh net worth and high net worth families and clients. It offers investment management, estate planning, philanthropic advice, education planning, wealth planning and income tax assistance, among other services.

The acquisition marks Corient's third in the past three months. In November, Corient announced it was being taken private by Mubadala Capital, the alternative asset management arm of Mubadala Investment Company. Corient has roughly $177 billion in assets under management and 1,200 employees.

Hightower CEO stepping down, to be replaced by Goldman exec

Hightower Advisors has announced that Bob Oros, CEO since 2019, is planning to step down in the spring.

Replacing him will be Larry Restieri, who was most recently the CEO of Ayco, a Goldman Sachs company, which offers workplace financial planning and private wealth advisory services.

Oros' time at Hightower was marked by acquisitions and rapid expansion. The firm went from having $57 billion to $1.8 trillion in assets under management.

Oros oversaw 50 merger and acquisition deals. Among them was NEPC, a firm offering investment consulting and outsourced chief investment officer services.

Hightower Advisors, based in Chicago, is owned by the private equity firm Thomas H. Lee Partners. Hightower was founded in 2007 as an RIA for advisors seeking to leave large wirehouses.

An ex-JPMorgan private bank exec joins Merrill

Merrill has hired a former JPMorgan private banker to oversee its operations in Georgia.

Merrill announced Friday that it had brought on Mike Marino to be its Georgia market executive. Marino had previously been vice chairman for JPMorgan Private Bank's South Atlantic Region. That role had him working with ultrahigh net worth clients and family offices throughout the region.