A Wyoming advisory duo are joining LPL Strategic Wealth Services to form the new independent practice Platte River Private Wealth. The team manages about $380 million in advisory and brokerage assets and are joining the broker/dealer from Morgan Stanley.
Advisors Chad Keeler and Brock Rouch aren’t only partners but also brothers-in-law who both graduated from Colorado State University. The new firm will be based in Casper, Wyo., and is named after the historic Platte River that runs through the city's downtown.
The duo is joined by Bonnie Long for administrative support, and their clients primarily consist of high-net-worth retirees, executives, small-business owners and families.
“We truly take a team approach and like the adage that, ‘if you speak to one of us, you are speaking to the other,” Rouch said. “We each have our individual strengths, such as financial planning, portfolio construction, discretionary investment management and a deep knowledge of complex financial products, but we can cross over those lines and assist clients wherever is needed.”
Keeler began his career in the industry in 2008, growing his business in the midst of the stock market crash and Great Recession. He was with Wells Fargo for three years before joining Morgan Stanley in 2011, and remained with the wirehouse until the move to LPL, according to his BrokerCheck profile.
Rouch previously worked as a project manager in the oil industry, before transitioning into financial services. He joined Keeler at Morgan Stanley in 2015, according to his own BrokerCheck profile.
Several years ago, the duo determined that they wanted to go independent, and began seeking out potential partners, eventually settling on LPL Strategic Wealth Services. The team enjoyed LPL’s wealth management platform and resources, and saw the Strategic Wealth Services support for daily operations and business management as ideal for their situation.
“We believe when our firm is able to tap into the bundled package of an elite LPL team we will be able to fully focus energies and time onto the servicing of our clients while limiting the minutiae of starting a small business that a typical entrepreneur has to suffer through,” Rouch said.
LPL welcomed a number of new teams in recent weeks, in addition to Platte River. Last week, the Oak Brook, Ill.–based mother/son duo of Theresa Hannon and Kevin Hannon joined with LPL by joining the existing team of Professional Wealth Advisors. The duo, which managed about $175 million in client assets, came from American Portfolios Financial Services.
Earlier this month, the Cedar Rapids, Iowa–based advisor Lisa Tesar joined Linsco, LPL’s employee advisor model. Tesar managed about $360 million in assets, and like Keeler and Rouch, joined LPL from Morgan Stanley.