LPL Firm Sues Advisor and Cetera Over Client Poaching
An LPL-affiliated firm is suing one of its former employees (and his new employer, Cetera), alleging he breached his employment contracts by soliciting clients and using confidential information.
Wochnick Financial Services filed the injunction request in Minnesota state court this week against Andrew Koetter (as well as the newly established Koetter Financial Services) and Cetera, where SEC records indicate he registered in late September.
According to court documents, Wochnick Financial Services is based in Little Falls, Minn., and is led by Michael Wochnick, a registered rep with LPL Financial. Koetter began working with Wochnick as a “loaned employee” through Focus Financial Network in 2021 and became a direct employee in April 2024.
In July 2025, Koetter allegedly signed agreements with Wochnick that barred him from using confidential client information and prohibited him from soliciting former clients for five years after his employment at the firm ended. But Wochnick said Koetter took steps to prepare his competing practice while still employed at the firm.
On June 8, Koetter allegedly emailed LPL with questions about his onboarding contract, and he was contacting some of Wochnick’s larger clients in the weeks before his resignation to “check in.”
Additionally, shortly after Wochnick Financial vacated its former office in Sauk Rapids in May, Koetter contacted the building’s owners to lease the same space for his own use.
On Sept. 21, the firm alleges Koetter submitted a letter of resignation when Wochnick was out of the country, asking that clients inquiring how to reach him contact him at Cetera, while stressing that he would “continue to abide” by his prior obligations, and that he had no confidential information or data. During a phone call that day, Koetter explained he was leaving because “he felt treated too much like an employee and not a future owner,” but allegedly reiterated he wouldn’t violate the employment agreements.
But Wochnick claims Koetter tried to solicit clients almost immediately, and moved back into Wochnick’s old space, allegedly without putting any of his own signage up; Wochnick alleged that the use of a similar name to his former firm, as well as the lack of signage, could make former clients think he remained affiliated with Wochnick.
Wochnick also noted that Koetter obtained a financial services license in Indiana immediately after leaving his former firm, and speculated that Koetter did so to continue working with two of Wochnick Financial’s larger clients in Indiana. To date, Wochnick said at least 19 clients have moved their accounts. Wochnick also said that Koetter accessed client files after his resignation, claiming that numerous client Income Projection files were marked “Modified by: Andrew Koetter” in dates after he left the company, and that the clients match those who later left.
A Cetera spokesperson said the firm “does not comment on legal matters.” Representatives from LPL did not return a request for comment.
In the filing, Wochnick asks the court to mandate a halt to any alleged client solicitation and to the use of the firm’s client information by Koetter or Cetera, and to return any allegedly stolen documents and destroy any such information from other devices or accounts.
