A Virginia Beach, Va.–based advisor with about $150 million in brokerage, advisory and retirement plan assets and nearly three decades in the industry will join LPL Financial from MML Investors Services, the firm announced.
Forest Williams Jr. was a financial advisor for The Opus Group of Virginia for 27 years before making the move to LPL, after leaving a previous career in corporate advertising. Williams specializes in asset management strategies, as well as cooperation retirement plans and retirement income planning. Williams said the move was predicated on his desire to attain more control over his business and boost his tech offerings for clients.
“We want access to updated technology, and found that LPL’s digital capabilities far exceed our expectations. We are already seeing an improvement in how we interact with clients, particularly with how they view their account information,” he said. “But more than that, the move to LPL also gives me the opportunity to be in my own office and control all of the client-facing activities.”
The new partnership is the latest in a spate of recent acquisitions by LPL, including several last month. Summit Wealth Advisors, a Pittsburgh-based team with about $140 million in managed assets moved to LPL from Lincoln Financial Securities in late August. Additionally, three advisors in Scottsdale, Ariz., with $375 million in combined client assets, formed a new practice and joined LPL from Wells Fargo, while two Bellevue, Wash.–based advisors who were previously affiliated with KMS Financial Services (a subsidiary of Securities America) moved to LPL with about $300 million in assets under management.
Finally, Equitrust Financial Group, an Illinois-based team with $800 million in managed client assets, also moved to LPL from Securities America in the aftermath of that firm’s merger into the Advisor Group network of broker/dealers.