Merrill Lynch, Wells Fargo Reps Move to Raymond James: Recruiting Roundup

"His ongoing leadership and enthusiasm in identifying and recruiting the best of the best to join our team made him a natural choice to serve as our first head of recruiting," Steward CEO Jim Gold, in a statement.

Gonyo joined Steward in 2014. Earlier, he spent about 10 years with Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, after entering the industry in 1993 as an advisor at Merrill Lynch. 

Integrated, LPL Updates

RIA Integrated Partners, which uses LPL Financial as its broker-dealer, has added Konvergent Wealth Partners of Seattle and Bend, Oregon.

The firm is led by partners Homer Smith and Dave Stuehling, veteran advisors who each spent roughly the past 20 years with Ameriprise Financial; they work with about $200 million in assets and will use Fidelity as a custody partner. 

Smith also will head up the western operations of Integrated Business Alliance, a unit of Integrated Partners; this job will focus on helping the firm's CPAs, advisors and other specialists, who serving business- owner clients.

"We wanted a partner that understood our passion for helping business owners and families with complex financial challenges that go far beyond asset management," according to Smith. 

Integrated currently includes 148 advisors and 127 CPAs working with some $6 billion in client assets. 

Meanwhile, LPL Financial said advisors Kenneth Small, CFP, and Natalie Jump are affiliated with the firm. They have worked with some $135 million in assets and recently were with Securities America, one of Ladenburg Thalmann's broker-dealers. (Late Monday, Advisor Group said it is buying Ladenburg and its BDs.)

Small has 36 years in the business. Jump joined his team in the late 1990s — first as an assistant and later as a licensed wealth advisor. The team is becoming part of Professional Wealth Advisors, an LPL team in Downer Grove, Illinois. 

"While I have no plans to slow down or stop working anytime soon, I need an exit strategy to support my clients' futures and ensure continuation of service," Small said in a statement. "Natalie and I will continue to work exclusively with our clients under the new partnership."

Separately, advisors Cris Arnold, David McIllwain, Charlotte Martin and Brenda Speer joined LPL from FSC Securities, an Advisor Group BD. The advisors, who work with $240 million in assets, are aligned with Independent Advisor Alliance in greater Nashville.

Arnold and McIllwain, who are longtime friends, merged their practices in 2003. That same year, friends Martin and Speer formed a practice to serve retirees in middle Tennessee. The two groups expect to merge their practices in early 2020.

 "We plan to take advantage of IAA's programs and capabilities that allow us to use their staff for routine tasks such as opening accounts and preparing paperwork, freeing up our team to provide more meaningful experiences for clients," according to Arnold.