Wells Fargo advisors with $1.45 billion in assets go independent with LPL

Three teams of financial advisors from Wells Fargo Advisors are joining to launch a new independent practice affiliated with LPL Financial.

The advisors at the newly formed Carnegie Private Wealth in Charlotte, North Carolina, served a collective $1.45 billion in advisory, brokerage and retirement plan assets at Wells Fargo. It is using LPL Strategic Wealth Services to leave the wirehouse and launch an independent firm.

The core group consists of Angie Ostendarp, Jordan Raniszeski, Mary Sherrill Ware and several client services support staffers.

“We are so much more than a traditional money manager,” Ware said in a statement. “Our job is to make our clients’ lives easier; to give them confidence and help them work toward their dreams while reducing stress around finances. There’s not a single financial topic that we don’t assist our clients with.”

They are joined by Mitch Mayfield, a 30-year veteran of the industry who ran a solo practice and shared a class with Ostendarp at the former Wachovia Securities, which was acquired by Wells Fargo in 2008.

“By going independent and joining the Carnegie team, we’ll have shared resources, knowledge and information to help better serve my clients and ensure they’re taken care of well into the future,” Mayfield said in the statement. “It’s going to be a tremendous group of people working together. I’ve known the other Carnegie advisors for a long time and we share the same culture and family-centric values.”

Also joining Carnegie Private Wealth is Jeff Vandiver, another solo practitioner with 30 years of industry experience.

“I’ve been friends with Angie, Jordan and Mitch for 20 years, and this felt like the right time to make a move that adds significant value to my clients,” Vandiver said in the statement.

The advisors cited enhanced technology, improved client communications and more flexibility as reasons for going independent. The Carnegie advisors will use LPL’s digital wealth management platform and receive support for daily operations and business management.

Following the transition, LPL Strategic Wealth will provide ongoing operations from a team that includes a business strategist, marketing partner, chief financial officer and administrative assistant.

“After thinking through all the options available in the marketplace, the opportunity to create our own firm at LPL with a culture that prioritizes clients’ needs and interests above everything else just felt like the right way forward,” Raniszeski said in the statement. “Having the chance to start from scratch and build things exactly how we want them has been so rewarding and we are so excited for clients to experience what we have built.”

“From choosing our own location and every piece of furniture and stitch of fabric to our broker/dealer partner and the integrated technology that we use on a daily basis, we have had a hand in choosing every last detail about Carnegie Private Wealth,” he added.

[More: Wells Fargo Advisors ended 2022 with stable advisor head count]