Former Morgan Stanley advisor Eric Bost had been mulling over the idea of going independent for a few years, but it never seemed to be the right time. That is, until the summer of 2019, when his brother-in-law was diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
“That’s when I realized life is too short, and I either needed to go independent, or be content with what I was doing,” said Bost.
Bost, a 30-year industry veteran, found a new home with Wells Fargo’s independent broker-dealer, FiNet. He oversaw $92 million while at his prior employer, according to Wells Fargo.
His newly independent practice, LII Wealth Management, specializes in family planning and ESG investing.
The significance of LII is two-fold.
L2 was the nickname of Bost’s late brother-in-law, Larry Alvin Lindsay II.
“He was a school teacher who was involved with his church. He wasn’t about money,” Bost says. “Money is great, but money towards a purpose is what it’s about.”
More than 300 reps have switched BDs so far this year, with LPL and Cambridge Investment Research completing the two largest grabs.
The name also fits with how Bost says he wants to best serve his clients.
“I want to go above and beyond the bare minimum of financial plan, asset allocation, and investment for my clients,” said Bost. “I want to get them to the next level — L2.”
Bost had been with Morgan Stanley for 10 years prior to making the move. His interest in wealth management was sparked by a 9th grade class project about the stock market, he says. He started on the wholesale side at Fidelity in 1991 before starting to build a book of clients in 2007.
Bost says about two-thirds of his clients are related to one another, spurring him to specialize in financial planning for multi-generation families.
He chose Wells Fargo’s FiNet because of its resources, such as compliance and cybersecurity.
