Ex-Thrivent team with $300M in client assets goes to Level Four

A trio of financial advisors managing $300 million in client assets left Thrivent Investment Management for a growing midsize competitor called Level Four Group.

Ryan Ash, Andrew Frank and Dawn Benko had each spent at least 16 years with Thrivent's brokerage as part of the Twin Cities-area Keystone Group before switching to Level Four last month and launching their new brand, Entirety Wealth Solutions. Level Four — a former branch of LPL Financial that now has its own brokerage and operates as a subsidiary of major accounting firm Carr, Riggs & Ingram CPA and Advisors — acquired a billion-dollar wealth company last year and recruited a credit union-based team from its former firm earlier this year.

Under the move, the Entirety team affiliated with Level Four's brokerage, registered investment advisory firm and insurance marketing organization. The team includes Investment Analyst Bennett Kerfeld, Wealth Coach Kerry Edwards, Client Experience Specialist Stacey Riemer and Client Concierge Deb Gelhaye.

"This strategic move allows us to harness the combined expertise of our teams, strengthen our capabilities and offer an even more robust suite of financial solutions to our valued clients," Ash said in a statement.

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The Shakopee, Minnesota-based team had been using the brokerage and RIA subsidiaries of Thrivent, which is best known as a faith-based asset management firm but also has a significant wealth management arm.

"At Thrivent, we employ thousands of financial advisors who are passionate about the opportunity to serve millions of clients across the country with purpose-based financial advice, and we offer competitive pay and incentives," spokeswoman Samantha Mehrotra said in a statement. "Within the last year, we recruited many new financial advisors while maintaining low turnover. We recognize that career transitions happen, and we wish these advisors the best as they enter the next phase of their careers."

With thousands of advisors going independent from wirehouses, rolling up into RIA aggregators with an eye toward succession or scale or simply seeking better technology or other services for clients, many midsize firms are expanding rapidly.

For example, New York-based Snowden Lane Partners passed $10 billion in client assets earlier this month after adding an advisor previously managing $420 million at another RIA. That milestone came more than a decade after the launch of Estancia Capital Partners-backed Snowden Lane, but CEO Rob Mooney said in an interview that the firm aims to pass the $20 billion mark in just three more years.

Many of the factors prompting advisor moves "have stayed the same" over the past few years, according to Mooney, who cited "the freedom and flexibility and avoidance of conflicts" of interest in the independent channels of the industry, as well as "the dis-economies of scale" at many larger incumbents in wealth management.

"The 'dis-economies of scale' is just another way of saying bureaucracy," Mooney said. "The democratization of technology has enabled smaller boutiques to have better investment solutions, platforms and more efficiency. And frankly, they are more gratifying places to work."

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Dallas-based Level Four had around $3 billion in client assets and 115 advisors when it left LPL two years ago. It now has $9.25 billion in client assets and 225 advisors. Earlier this year, CEO Edmon "Jake" Tomes stated a goal of doubling in size by 2025.

"Level Four is a growing mid-size alternative for financial advisor teams looking to take their business to the next level," Tomes said in a statement.