A firm consisting of three Chesapeake, Va.-based advisors with more than $150 in client brokerage, advisory and retirement plan assets will join LPL Financial, the independent broker/dealer announced today. JCG, which includes advisors Carter Johns, Michael Chu and John Gillis, will join LPL from Ameriprise Financial.
“With LPL’s deep well of resources, we feel positioned well for success,” Chu said. “I hope to create a business that my children will hopefully want to be part of one day.”
The three advisors, which collectively have almost 60 years of experience in the industry, formed JCG in 2012, and subsequently expanded their client list primarily through referrals. According to Chu, they wanted to find an option that would have the tech resources to help them maintain their efficiency while retaining a personalized touch to their interactions with clients. He specifically noted LPL’s ClientGoals, the firm’s recent goals-based addition to their ClientWorks platform, as a powerful resource to enhance discussions with clients.
“We can use the reporting during those conversations, providing them with a roadmap to their goals,” Chu said.
LPL Financial held its annual Focus conference in San Diego several weeks ago and announced a number of new initiatives, including an “end-to-end” solution to help advisors navigate the entirety of a mergers and acquisitions process, as well CFO Solutions, a subscription-based services that helps advisors partner with LPL employees who can help gauge the financial health of an advisors' business and help them create short-and-long-term goals for greater success. The M&A assistance tool is currently in a pilot program with 15 advisors, with a launch (and name) expected before the end of the year. LPL also announced the creation of a team dedicated to collecting feedback from advisors to better the firm’s own practices.
The JCG team isn’t the only recent advisor team to partner with LPL; in August, two retirement counselors from Benefit Funding Retirement Services joined LPL’s corporate registered investment advisor and broker/dealer platforms (the two advisors had a combined total of $150 million in assets under management). In July, a Los Angeles-based retail advisory firm joined LPL Financial from FMS Financial Partners, an affiliate of Kestra Financial Partners. The firm managed approximately $500 million in client assets.