LPL grabs former Voya team with $400 million in assets

LPL made clear it was eyeing Voya financial advisers after Cetera Financial Group Inc. said it was buying the firm in February.

Continuing its strong recruiting year, LPL Financial on Tuesday morning said it had recruited a $400 million team that had spent the last eight years registered with Voya Financial Advisors Inc., which was recently bought by Cetera Financial Group.

LPL over the winter made clear it was eyeing Voya financial advisers after Cetera in February said it was buying the firm. Broker-dealer acquisitions always present opportunities for rivals to engage in fresh discussions with those advisers.

The team, Corpus Christi Financial Group has joined LPL’s broker-dealer, corporate registered investment adviser and custodial platforms, the company said in a statement.

It’s led by managing partner Cory Summers, who was registered with Voya from 2013 until June, when he became registered with Cetera Financial Advisors, according to his BrokerCheck profile. He became registered with LPL on Aug. 26.

LPL has been offering advisers over the past couple years one of the most attractive recruiting deals in the industry to move to the firm and is focusing on advisers who will use its custody and RIA services.

“We wanted a place we can call ‘home’ for the long-term; somewhere we can focus on clients and not worry about the next change,” Summers said in a statement.

A spokesperson for Cetera did not comment about Corpus Christi Financial Group but touted the deal for Voya. “We are very energized by the success of our acquisition of the assets related to Voya Financial Advisors’ independent financial planning channel,” the spokesperson wrote in an email.

Cetera in June said its acquisition of Voya Financial Advisors had been a success and it had retained more than 90% of Voya’s 900 financial advisers and $37 billion in assets.

Around the same time, LPL said it had recruited a large Voya team, Brian M. Woods Financial Services, with close to 30 financial advisers that work with $1.6 billion in advisory, brokerage and retirement plan assets.