Close Close
ThinkAdvisor

Financial Planning > Behavioral Finance

After 13 Years of Invites, Commonwealth Snags LPL Advisor

X
Your article was successfully shared with the contacts you provided.

Commonwealth Financial Network said Monday that independent advisor Lance Nelson of Nelson & Nelson Wealth Management in Camarillo, California, is now affiliated with the broker-dealer. The firm, which has some $92 million in assets under management, previously traded its securities through LPL Financial (LPLA).

“We seek to partner with like-minded advisors who emphasize client service the way we do — and Lance Nelson and his team demonstrate that same commitment,” said Andrew Daniels, managing principal of business development for Commonwealth Financial, in a statement. “We will provide the indispensable service and support that enables Lance to grow his business and focus on his clients.”

According to Nelson, who went into the business with his uncle Tom Nelson in 1988 at a predecessor firm of Ameriprise Financial (AMP), it was Commonwealth’s consistent communications with him that prompted him to make the switch.

“Around 2001, I met with both LPL Financial and Commonwealth Financial,” Nelson said in an interview with ThinkAdvisor. “But I didn’t know anyone at Commonwealth. I did know some advisors who had gone from American Express to LPL.”

For the past 13 years, Commonwealth sent Nelson a friendly postcard every quarter. “That’s why I called them when I was thinking about making a move,” said Nelson, who adds that he is glad to be affiliated with a private company that has a very entrepreneurial, service-minded culture. 

His wife, Abie, also started in the business in 1988, but she cut her teeth at E.F. Hutton. She now works at Nelson & Nelson as a registered sales associate. Lori Draheim serves as the group’s senior client services associate.

The group’s website features a photo of a sailboat at sea, prompting the question: Does anyone at Nelson & Nelson have family ties to Vice Adm. Horatio Nelson of the British navy?

“I do have a coffee cup with his picture on it. My cousin is doing lots of historical research, so I can’t say ‘no’ or ‘yes’ yet,” Nelson joked. 

In mid-August, Benjamin W. Wong and Associates of Pleasanton, California, affiliated with Commonwealth Financial. The group had some $700 million in assets under management and was affiliated with Financial Telesis Inc.

(Financial Telesis was recently acquired by former LPL Financial executive Bill Chetney, who formed a retirement plan partnership in cooperation with the LPL’s hybrid RIA business in July.)

Commonwealth Financial Network has about 1,500 independent advisors nationwide.

— Check out Commonwealth Financial’s McMillan Still Sees 4 Economic Green Lights on ThinkAdvisor.