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Industry Spotlight > Broker Dealers

LPL Grabs Team of 20 From Advisor Group

By Jeff Berman

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What You Need to Know

  • The $550M Walnut Beech Advisors team has joined LPL from rival Advisor Group's Royal Alliance BD network.
  • A managing partner of Walnut Beech cites LPL's technology capabilities as a major draw for his team.
  • The group wants to co-brand as a tax-focused firm and partner with CPAs and enrolled agents.

LPL Financial has added a 20-person team from rival Advisor Group’s Royal Alliance who managed about $550 million in advisory, brokerage and retirement plan assets.

The newly formed Walnut Beech Advisors has offices in Rochester, Michigan, and Long Beach, New York, on Long Island, and have joined LPL’s broker-dealer, corporate RIA and custodial platforms, LPL said Monday.

The team is led by Office of Supervisory Jurisdiction manager Tim Maurer and Rick Betancourt, its managing partner. The team includes “20 like-minded financial professionals committed to putting their clients first,” according to LPL.

They were associated at Royal Alliance and “recognized the value of teaming up in an effort to provide more comprehensive wealth management and financial services” for clients, LPL said.

“Many of the advisors in the group have been friends for several years,” according to an LPL spokeswoman. “Some advisors met at Royal Alliance, others have known each other for years prior to their time” at that company, she told ThinkAdvisor on Monday.

The new firm’s name is derived from street names where their offices are located in Michigan and New York.

“The team has been moving to LPL in waves since last fall, with its final advisor joining this month,” LPL said.

The new partnership with LPL offers the team “more freedom and independence to share ideas and work together on client cases, and also opens up the ability to co-brand as a tax-focused OSJ group, where they can work closely with CPAs and enrolled agents who complement their investment strategies and financial plans,” according to LPL.

“As a millennial advisor, I’m really excited about how much LPL invests in innovative technology,” Betancourt said in the announcement. “My clients are requiring more and more sophisticated digital capabilities, and the ability to easily access their accounts and information from any device. We are confident LPL will be able to keep up with the latest tools and resources available.”

Walnut Beech has “already been able to incorporate some of the newer technologies to help streamline our business,” he added.

With the team fully on board at LPL, the Walnut Beech leaders plan future growth and expansion.

“This new partnership with LPL allows us to deepen our business continuity and succession planning,” according to Maurer.

LPL had 17,287 advisors managing $461.2 billion in advisory assets and $441.9 million in brokerage assets as of Dec. 31, the end of its fourth quarter.

Advisor Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday about losing the Royal reps.

Jeff Berman

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