LPL Financial adds $2.4 billion San Diego team as recruiting pace hits yearly high

LPL has deepened its presence in the West Coast yet again, as a five-advisor team overseeing a multibillion-dollar book marks the latest in a recruiting spree that included the busiest month of hiring for LPL so far this year.

LPL announced Tuesday that it has recruited HighWater Wealth, a San Diego-based advisory team overseeing approximately $2.4 billion in advisory assets.

The five-member team – including Kristian Forster, Mike Rookus, Falko Hörnicke, Tim Davidson and Brian Rissman – joins LPL's broker-dealer and registered investment advisor platform from U.S. Bank through an affiliation with Quotient Advisor Partners.

HighWater Wealth provides multi-generational office services for high-net-worth individuals and families, built around a planning-first model that starts with a full review of a client's trust and estate structure before layering in investment strategy.

“Our approach is centered on understanding the full financial picture – from trust and estate considerations to cash flow and long-term objectives – so we can design strategies that are tailored to each family’s needs,” said Rookus, president and founding partner of the team.

Forster added that the move to LPL was driven by the platform's flexibility and research capabilities, along with the speed at which the team could act on client needs once affiliated with Quotient.

"Most advisors stay inside large institutions not because they're satisfied, but because going independent feels too risky,” said Ray Lucia Jr., chief executive officer of Quotient Advisor Partners, explaining his firm's focus on providing "transition expertise, infrastructure and community" for breakaway advisory teams.

The San Diego win lands amid what appears to be LPL's strongest recruiting stretch of the year. According to the latest monthly snapshot of advisor movement from AdvizorPro, LPL brought in 204 advisors for the month of June – its highest single-month total tracked so far this year and nearly double its May record.

The arrivals at LPL in June covered a wide spread of rival firms including UBS, JPMorgan, Cetera, Wells Fargo, and Raymond James, among others. And while it saw 127 walkouts for the month – the second-highest number of departures by AdvizorPro's reckoning – LPL still managed the industry in net advisor movement.

"The appearance of LPL at number two in outflows while leading in inflows underscores the sheer volume of movement running through the platform and reflects the high churn that comes with being the industry's largest independent broker-dealer," AdvizorPro noted.

The HighWater deal also fits a longer pattern documented in an ISS Market Intelligence research report published in May. Over a five-year span ending in 2025, it found that LPL recorded more than 7,200 net advisor additions, the largest haul of any firm and greater than the net gain of the entire independent broker-dealer channel over the same period.

"The firm’s scale reflects a combination of aggressive recruitment strategies, flexible transition support, and continued investment in technology and advisor platform capabilities," the ISS MI report said.