Burt White moves from LPL to Carson Group

Less than nine months after announcing his plans to retire from his position as chief investment officer at LPL, Burt White is moving to Carson Group, where he will take on the newly created role of chief strategy officer.

White, 52, who spent 14 years at LPL, officially wrapped up his employment with the broker-dealer on Friday and started work at Carson Group on Monday.

White joins Carson’s executive board and will report directly to company founder Ron Carson.

“Burt and I will have a lot of fun together traveling the country, augmenting and elevating our value proposition,” said Carson, who severed his broker-dealer relationship with LPL in late 2016, moving $2.6 billion worth of brokerage and advisory assets to Cetera Financial Group.

Carson said he met White on the day he originally joined LPL, and describes him as a “culturally, a perfect fit.”

“One of my secrets as I’ve gone through life is writing down the names of people I would have on my team if I could,” Carson said, adding that White was on that list.

“I've known Burt for 14 years; he not only understands where the profession is but where it needs to go,” Carson said. “We're extremely intentional about the people we add to our leadership team, and I am incredibly excited about what Burt brings to the table as a human, friend and visionary of our profession.”

White, who lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, will be a frequent visitor to Carson Group’s Omaha, Nebraska, headquarters, but has no plans to relocate there.

 He describes his new role as “making [Carson Group] a really exciting magnet for advisers to join.”

“I’m trying to make sure advisers have the very best wealth management experience and platform in the industry,” White added. “I’ve realized that investments are an important part of the platform, but not the only part. I’m going to try and elevate the overall wealth management platform.”

Regarding the August announcement that he would be “retiring,” White admitted that he didn’t know how else to describe his departure from LPL.

“I didn’t know what I was going to do, and I didn’t know the impact I was going to make,” he said. “I spent a lot of time talking to mentors, my friends and family, and one of the mentors I talked with was Ron Carson.”

White, who didn’t elaborate publicly following his initial announcement to leave LPL, described his time there as “blessed,” and said the months since the announcement were “a time for me to pause; it was almost like a sabbatical.”

“I’ve had the opportunity to work in different parts of the wealth management ecosystem; I was a money manager, a trader, consultant, I worked at a wirehouse bank,” he said. “The last thing I haven’t done, outside of fintech, is worked intimately supporting RIAs, and I’m fortunate I get to do it last. I wanted the last stop on my career journey to round out the experience.”

Founded in 1983, Carson Group serves financial advisers and investors through three businesses: Carson Wealth, Carson Coaching and Carson Partners. The company manages $20 billion in assets and serves more than 40,000 families among its adviser network of 120 partner offices, including 35 Carson Wealth locations.