LPL Advisors Stay Put After OSJ Defects to Cetera
Last month, Sierra Ridge Advisor Group, a Roseville, Calif.-based office of supervisory jurisdiction with about $2.1 billion in assets under administration, left LPL Financial to join Cetera, with plans to launch its own RIA on Cetera’s Blueprint platform. But 28 advisors and team members representing about $825 million in assets under advisement have opted to stay with LPL, affiliating with Gateway Financial Partners, a hybrid RIA and large OSJ with LPL.
“When our OSJ announced its move, we owed it to our clients to evaluate every path forward,” said Ryan Bell, one of the advisors who stayed. “We took a hard look at Gateway’s value proposition, the partnership culture, the practice growth resources, the succession planning support, and the strength of their team, and the decision became clear. We’re excited to join Gateway and to do it without asking a single client to change platforms.”
Gateway was founded in 1994 by Chief Visionary Officer David Wood out of Glastonbury, Conn. The OSJ now has more than 200 advisors across 27 states and about $10.5 billion in AUA.
A few years ago, the firm launched an equity ownership program for its financial advisors and employees. Under the Gateway Growth Partnership, the OSJ will take a 15% to 20% revenue stake in the advisor’s practice, in exchange for a combination of cash and equity in Gateway’s holding company.
Sierra Ridge executives said they had aggressive growth plans, which they felt LPL couldn’t support. The firm has plans to expand in the Midwest and on the East Coast, recruit more advisor teams and launch its own RIA on the Blueprint platform. But the firm still plans to maintain a brokerage affiliation and operate under a hybrid model.
Cetera’s Blueprint is an RIA platform of “resources, technologies and services from which they can execute their growth plan,” a spokesperson said. The platform is multi-custodial and provides a modular middle-office infrastructure.
