$6B Commonwealth Team Starts Hybrid RIA
A $6 billion Commonwealth/LPL Financial team has split off to become a hybrid registered investment advisor, while keeping ties to LPL Financial as its custodian and broker/dealer.
Bartholomew & Company, which is based in Worcester, Mass., announced Monday it was launching as a hybrid RIA, with its roughly 5,000 clients moving from Commonwealth custodian Fidelity Investments to LPL during a planned transition in November.
Recently appointed firm CEO Alex Bartholomew, son of founder Tom Bartholomew, said they had been considering a move to independence for years, but LPL’s acquisition of Commonwealth opened the door in a way that made sense.
“It opens up a world of opportunity for us,” Bartholomew said. “We’re very much looking forward to curating our own tech stack for our advisors and ultimately the clients to give them access to investment solutions and wealth management solutions that we otherwise couldn’t have done.”
Bartholomew said the firm had significant optionality with Commonwealth. But after scaling to about 34 employees serving upper-high-net-worth clients and institutions, it made more sense to become an RIA with full flexibility.
“For a firm of our size and tenure, we want to make sure our recommendations, our research, our thought capital is coming from us, it’s not something that we are repackaging and giving to clients,” he said.
Bartholomew said custodying with LPL will make the transition easier for clients as they will not have to repaper. It will also mean all of their data and information will transfer over in the move.
Bartholomew & Company has, however, already been talking to other custodians and has plans to be multi-custodial in the future.
LPL has seen several firms leave since the acquisition was announced in March 2025. The San-Diego based broker/dealer’s leadership, including CEO Rich Steinmeier, has been actively working with Commonwealth firms to work out ways in which they would stay with LPL or, as in the case of Bartholomew, remain custodied with them.
“Rich Steinmeier and his team have been incredibly responsive and hands-on through this whole process,” Bartholomew said. “They have been available and accessible, which is nice. We didn’t expect that with such a large publicly traded company.”
LPL did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the move.
