LPL Financial and Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network have made progress on their respective recruitment strategies to start the week, with each adding experienced financial advisors to their platforms.
LPL announced Tuesday that Duane Dollar and Phillip Owens have joined its broker-dealer, RIA and custodial platforms from Ameriprise.
The duo, who launched PCC Wealth Partners through LPL's platform, reported managing approximately $315 million in advisory, brokerage and retirement plan assets.
Together, the Woodlands, Texas-based tandem brings nearly five decades of combined industry experience.
Dollar and Owens have worked together since 2016 and focus primarily on clients nearing or in retirement. They describe their firm’s approach as comprehensive, with an emphasis on long-term planning and client engagement.
“We take the time to really understand our clients’ unique goals. We also provide them with a financial education so they can take an active role in the process of putting together a tailored plan,” Dollar said in a statement on Tuesday.
Owens cited the move to LPL as a return to the foundational values that originally drew him to the industry. “This industry is changing faster than ever before, and I see [this move] as my greatest opportunity ... to get back to the reasons I got into the financial industry in the first place – entrepreneurship and the ability to help my clients safeguard their fiscal futures,” he said.
Dollar and Owens' move comes as the bitter recruitment feud continues between LPL and Ameriprise. In the latest exchange, Ameriprise scored a point against its rival financial giant as a San Diego, California court judge shot down a defamation lawsuit LPL filed last month.
Separately on Monday, Wells Fargo disclosed that David Grice has brought his Grice Financial practice to Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network.
Coming from Janney Montgomery Scott in Hendersonville, North Carolina, Grice reported $130 million in assets under management and $1.6 million in production.
Grice, who has 37 years of experience in financial services – including previous stops at Merrill Lynch and Citi, according to his BrokerCheck profile – is joined in the business by his wife, Codruta, and son, Christopher as associates.
His defection comes after another advisor duo left Janney for greener pastures in Pennsylvania last week, with those veteran advisors choosing to make the switch to Raymond James & Associates.
At the January conference call discussing the firm's fourth-quarter earnings with analysts, Wells Fargo's CFO Michael Santomassimo said it will continue building out FiNet, its independent broker-dealer, this year.
"We plan to continue scaling our marketing efforts, modernizing our branch footprint and increasing the number of premier bankers and financial advisors,” he said. "We are also focused on onboarding more independent advisors as we continue building out our independent brokerage channel.”
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