Cetera adds $250M Guided Financial Strategies team after long LPL run

Cetera Financial Group has yet again extended its streak of recruitment wins at LPL's expense.

Guided Financial Strategies, a Connecticut practice that spent more than two decades with LPL, has joined Cetera’s Summit Financial Networks community with approximately $250 million in assets under administration.

As of Sept. 30, Cetera reported roughly $625 billion in assets under administration and $284 billion in assets under management across its firms.

The move adds another LPL-linked team to Cetera’s recruiting tally as the competition for experienced advisors continues to intensify in the independent space.

In a statement, founder Alan Hughes said he established Guided Financial Strategies around a fiduciary mindset and says many of the firm’s earliest clients remain with the practice today.

“We’ve built Guided Financial Strategies on ethics, honesty, and a commitment to treating every client like family,” Hughes said, noting that some clients have been with the firm for 40 years or more. He said the team saw “transparency, service, and relationship-building” as common ground with Cetera and Summit.

Advisor Rick Dickinson, who rejoined Guided Financial Strategies in 2017 after a stint in corporate roles at LPL, said the firm has been investing in staff, operations, and advisor recruiting to support its next phase. He pointed to Cetera’s “scalable efficiencies and the right community environment” as key to those plans, while both he and Hughes highlighted Summit’s collaborative structure and accessibility as draws.

The addition of Guided Financial Strategies lands just a week after Cetera recruited Great Lakes Wealth Advisors, a Michigan-based firm overseeing about $147 million in AUA, from Commonwealth, which was recently acquired by LPL. Great Lakes co-founder Chris Sauve said LPL’s deal was the trigger for their own review.

“We had some concerns about being a couple of advisors out of 30,000,” Sauve said separately, adding that the team wanted to be sure they and their clients would not be “just some number.”

The back-to-back hires at Cetera come amid a broader war for talent that's played out in dramatic fashion since LPL revealed its deal to acquire Commonwealth Financial Network in March. Rival broker-dealers were quick to come in with competing invitations for departing advisors, with Cetera CEO Todd MacKay penning an open letter appealing to Commonwealth Advisors.

At one point, Raymond James emerged as the apparent leader in the recruitment race, reeling in 18 Commonwealth teams with more than $4 billion in pre-move assets. Still, LPL has remained hopeful in its retention strategy, with CEO Rich Steinmeier disclosing the firm had secured deals for 80% of Commonwealth's advisors to stay.

Nevertheless, Cetera doesn't seem to be letting up on its charm offensive for advisors. Without calling out Commonwealth or any of its rival firms, Cetera chief financial officer Jeffrey Buchheister urged advisors to “look past the upfront dollars and flashy sales pitches” when assessing offers.

"I’ve seen what can happen next firsthand," Buchheister said in a guest column for Barron's. "After a burdensome transition, advisors sometimes realize there are fees they didn’t anticipate, terms they didn’t understand, and a lack of growth and service support where they need it most – in short, that they’ve picked the wrong partner."

Author's note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated Guided Financial Strategies' location.