A mother-daughter team whose advisory practice lasted almost 20 years with LPL Financial left the independent broker-dealer as part of deal that removes many of the operational tasks of serving 750 clients.
Judy and Lisa VanArsdale of Deer Park, Illinois-based Lakeview Wealth Management
The two had to make a tough decision to shed some of those responsibilities or "keep being business owners and delegate a lot of the work with our clients to other people," Lisa VanArsdale said in an interview.
"With the size of practice we have, I had to be able to walk away from some of that," she added. "Anything LPL asked, we did because we loved the people there. We can't say 'no' to them. We just felt like we had to make a change."
"Be careful what you do and what you create and what you ask for, because you might get it," added her mother, Judy VanArsdale. "We had to make a decision at a crossroads."
Representatives for LPL, where the VanArsdales had a presence in recent years on the Advisor Council, in its government relations efforts and as part of the Advisor Inclusion Council, didn't respond to requests for comment.
Fellow advisors who came to know the team through LPL wished them luck in their new setup.
"They are both so generous in their time, ideas and thoughtful words/deeds," Laura LaTourette, who was on the LPL inclusion committee with Lisa VanArsdale, said in an email. "If they are on a committee or tasked w/a commitment — you know they will put 110% into it."
Advisors whose business has grown to about $450 million in client assets or $5 million in annual revenue often run into problems in finding the capacity to service their burgeoning businesses, according to Shauna Mace, the head of practice management for Independent Advisor Solutions by SEI. That issue is playing a role in driving
"It becomes a question of, 'Do you want to build and manage a business, or do you not want to do that?'" Mace said. "That question really drives different options that you have in how you can regain capacity and do the work that you want to do."
For the VanArsdales, their decision to go with SageView after "looking at a bunch of different options for about seven months last year" revolved around the flexibility to maintain their practice's policy against required account minimums for clients, Lisa said. The practice counts many Illinois teachers among its base, and she said that the ability to open an IRA with $1,000 for an 18-year-old child of a customer allows the practice to be multigenerational.
"We got to weed out a lot of people very quickly when we said we have no account minimum," she said. "That was a choice that we made a long time ago — that we were going to provide advice to everyone and leave that door open with no account minimum."
Besides the mother-daughter advisor duo, the staff includes Kristy Whitaker, Katie Krettler, Heidi VanArsdale, Brooke Little and two other employees. Since receiving an investment from financial services and technology-focused private equity firm Aquiline Capital Partners in 2021, SageView has announced eight acquisitions and reached its current size from only 100 employees and $119 billion in assets under advisement.
The incoming VanArsdale team "supports our growth strategy and expands our presence in the important Chicago-area market," SageView Founder Randy Long
Lisa VanArsdale, an 11-year industry veteran, formally moved to SageView and Cetera Advisor Networks in November, according to FINRA BrokerCheck. Judy VanArsdale, a 20-year veteran, came over to the firms in late December. Their team has reached out to all of the practice's clients offering to meet with them on a phone call or a Zoom meeting to discuss the deal.
"We didn't just send out a letter," Judy said. "We asked every client to come on this journey with us."
"I'm sure they're sick of the amount of emails they've gotten from me, but we wanted to be transparent throughout the entire thing," Lisa said. "We don't know how to do it any other way."
