LPL adds $1.2 billion pair from Morgan Stanley

A father-and-son team of advisors who managed about $1.2 billion in assets at Morgan Stanley has joined LPL Financial’s model for supported independence, LPL Strategic Wealth Services.

Burke Francis and Christopher Francis will operate as The Francis Group at LPL in the Los Angeles area. Burke Francis has been building the firm, which focuses on asset management for high-net-worth individuals, since 1966; Christopher Francis joined the business in 1998 after working in real estate development and with venture-capital backed companies.

In response to requests from their clients for more white-glove, family office type services, the two decided to make a change and settled on LPL Strategic Wealth Services. In a statement, they cited LPL’s offerings, including its HNW services team, Private Trust Company and specialized product capabilities.

“Now we can grow and build the firm as we’d like, with the expanded resources and experience from the LPL Strategic Wealth Services team,” Chris Francis said in the statement. “With this dedicated support, along with LPL’s innovative digital capabilities and robust business solutions, we’ll have the tools and resources at our disposal to deliver enhanced services and experiences for each client.”

Burke Francis started his career at Hornblower & Weeks Hemphill Noyes in 1966 and did stints at E.F. Hutton & Co., Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers and Citigroup before joining Morgan Stanley in 2009, according to his BrokerCheck report. Christopher Francis started at Interfirst Capital Corp. in 1998 and joined Morgan Stanley in 2009.

“We used to tell our clients ‘bigger is better,’ but we realize that is not the case anymore, and with searing vision comes beneficial results,” Burke Francis said in the statement.