Kestra Financial is widening its recruiting operation in the western United States, hiring a veteran headhunter away from Raymond James and promoting a homegrown business development staffer.
The moves, announced Tuesday, extend a hiring run that has been underway for more than a year as the Austin-based independent broker-dealer continues its advisor growth push.
Austen Karr joins Kestra Financial as a business development consultant covering Southern California, Colorado, Nevada and Hawaii, the firm said. He spent nearly 11 years at Raymond James as a vice president and previously worked in recruiting and distribution roles at LPL Financial and MetLife, giving him more than 15 years of experience in financial-services business development.
Alongside the external hire, Kestra promoted Jack Roller to vice president, business development, putting him in charge of recruiting across Washington, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota and Alaska. Roller joined the firm in 2022 as a financial planning analyst and had most recently served as senior business development consultant.
James Collins, executive vice president and head of business development at Kestra Financial, said the additions reflect the firm's effort to keep pace with its growing advisor base. "Austen brings deep recruiting experience and strong advisor relationships across the West," Collins said, adding that Roller's promotion reflects the kind of talent Kestra wants to develop from within.
The Western hires extend a buildout that has been underway for more than a year. Kestra recruited close to 130 advisors in 2025 from Commonwealth Financial Network.
A report from AdvizorPro and Muriel Consulting found that 653 advisors left Commonwealth after its roughly $2.7 billion sale to LPL was announced in March last year. Raymond James reportedly captured 33% of those departing advisors, while Kestra took 19% and Cambridge Investment Research picked up 11%.
Kestra has also been hiring directly from LPL, the industry's largest broker-dealer by headcount. The firm brought on Austin Shives from LPL in January as a Tampa-based vice president of business development, then added Benjamin Marks, formerly of LPL's Milwaukee office, as vice president and business development consultant. Those hires followed Collins' own promotion from senior vice president to his current executive vice president role last June.
The recruiting push has unfolded alongside a change in ownership. Kestra Holdings announced a fresh capital infusion from funds managed by Stone Point Capital in 2024, replacing funds managed by Warburg Pincus as majority owner – a reversal of a 2019 transaction in which Warburg Pincus had bought Kestra from Stone Point. Oak Hill Capital has remained a minority owner throughout
The scale of the buildout has left industry executives split on Kestra's efforts to beef up its business development bench mean exactly.
"To me, this looks like Kestra could be getting ready for a deal," one senior industry executive told InvestmentNews in February, pointing to the firm's private-equity ownership.
Other executives have been less convinced a sale is imminent, arguing instead that Kestra's cultural fit with former Commonwealth advisors – not deal preparation – accounts for its recruiting success.
Kestra reported more than 1,300 advisors on its platform and $142 billion in total assets earlier this year, before the addition of Karr and Roller.
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