LPL Grabs $800M Securities America Team: Recruiting Roundup

LPL Financial has recruited an $800 million team of independent advisors from Securities America, one of the Advisor Group broker-dealers that was acquired from Ladenburg Thalmann in February.

Based in Deerfield, Illinois, Equitrust Financial Group includes founding advisors Steven Hyman, CPA, and Charles Noparstak, CFP, as well as Felix E. Aisen, CFP, Joshua S. Noparstak, CFP, and Gail V. Crowley, CFP.

Hyman and Noparstak both have been in the business for 35 years, while their group was affiliated with Securities America for the past 28 years.

"We believe it's in the best interest of our clients to work with a publicly-listed company and one with self-clearing capabilities," according to Noparstak.

Plus, he said, "Our staff was blown away by how easy it could be to run our business; we have already seen an uptick in office efficiency simply because of something as simple as there being fewer forms to have to fill out."

The news comes several months after LPL recruited a Securities America group, JFC Financial Services, with about 100 affiliated advisors and some $3 billion in assets. It was founded by Jack Connealy in 1992 and is based in Lincoln, Nebraska.

RBC News

RBC Wealth Management has recruited a Morgan Stanley team in Southern California with four advisors and about $675 million of assets. The group, which works with professional athletes, entertainers and other clients, is based in Beverly Hills.

News of the team's movement comes a few days after Morgan Stanley announced that it has been added to the list of institutions included in the NFL Players Association's official financial advisor program, joining AllianceBernstein, Goldman Sachs and Bessemer Trust.

The advisors that comprise RBC's new team are Mike Ladge, Shon Saleh, Joseph Sulentor and Brandon Allen.

"With the global backing of the Royal Bank of Canada along with the firm's Los Angeles-based City National Bank, this was a natural fit for our practice," Ladge said in a statement, adding that many of the team's clients "already bank at City National."

The advisor has been in the business for 23 years and spent the past 11 at Morgan Stanley. Saleh has 40 years of industry experience; he also was with Morgan Stanley since 2009, as were Sulentor and Allen, according to FINRA BrokerCheck.

RBC Wealth has some 2,000 advisors and $379 billion in total client assets.

Breakaway Broker

Advisor Andy Ferguson, CFP, has left Merrill Lynch to form an indie firm working with Dynasty Financial Partners and Fidelity Clearing & Custody Solutions.

The firm, Proquility Private Wealth Partners, is based in Las Vegas and works with some $360 million in client assets. Ferguson worked for Merrill Lynch for 37 years, joining the firm in 1983.

Also joining Proquility from Merrill is advisor Patty Yeager. In addition, Proquility has hired Trevor Hooton as a client experience director.

"I spent years researching and investigating the best options and firmly believe that we can best serve our clients as an independent advisory firm that is able to tap into the best capabilities in the industry," Ferguson said in a statement.

According to Dynasty CEO Shirl Penny, "Andy and his team are a well-established financial advisory team in Las Vegas, … [and] we expect them to flourish in the independent space." "