LPL Recruits $1.1B Team to its RIA Channel From Wells Fargo
LPL Financial, the San Diego-based independent broker/dealer with $2.6 trillion in brokerage and advisory assets, has recruited a $1.1 billion team to its registered investment advisor platform from Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network.
Praxis Financial Partners advisors Scott Christian, Cecil Loyd, Jay Gentry and Matt Dion have joined LPL Financial’s broker/dealer and RIA platform after evaluating more than a dozen options, according to an announcement from the firms.
“LPL’s open architecture platform gives us the freedom to build the wealth management ecosystem we believe best serves our clients,” Christian said in a statement.
Based in Alpharetta, Ga., Praxis Financial Partners works with business owners, corporate retirees, executives and multigenerational families across 24 states.
Christian and Loyd launched the firm in 2013, naming it after the Greek word for “process” to reflect their planning-based philosophy, according to the firm.
Gentry joined the practice in 2020 after 20 years in asset management distribution, while Dion joined in 2024 after 15 years as an advisor.
Dion had been the longest-tenured Wells advisor at about 16 years, with Christian and Loyd at the wirehouse for 13 years and Gentry for six, according to BrokerCheck.
There has been a steady flow of financial advisors to the RIA space in recent years, with large broker/dealers such as LPL, Osaic, and Cetera Financial Group pushing their RIA, fee-based options for advisors.
Wells Fargo, for its part, has been regularly attracting large wirehouse teams to its FiNet practice and is working to roll out a revamped, fee-only RIA custody platform to be seeded by some FiNet advisors by the end of this year. Firm executives have said that the platform will be extended to external advisors in 2027.
Praxis chose LPL in part because it offered resources and scale while allowing the advisors to maintain ownership of the business, the firm said.
“We were looking for a partner committed to innovation and focused on helping advisors deliver greater value,” Dion said.
LPL did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the asset or advisor count in its RIA channel.
As of its most recent figures, LPL affiliates with more than 32,000 financial advisors and the wealth management practices of about 1,100 financial institutions.
