LPL reels in $520 million team from rival Cambridge

LPL Financial said on Thursday that a large, 14-person team in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, with $520 million in client assets recently left Cambridge Investment Research Inc. to join LPL. Premier Investments of Iowa is led by Jeff Johnston, president, and Brock Renner, vice president. According to their BrokerCheck profiles, Mr. Johnston moved to LPL from Cambridge in August, and Mr. Renner moved last month. The group includes six advisers and six client and office staff. Throughout the year, LPL has trained its sights on recruiting teams of advisers from rivals. In April, LPL said it was focusing on recruiting advisers at select firms, including Cetera, Kestra and Securities America Inc., with a special offer in the form of a three-year forgivable loan that pays an adviser 50 basis points on assets transferred to LPL. It was not clear whether Cambridge advisers qualified for that deal. In September, LPL continued upping the ante, targeting advisers at rival broker-dealers owned by private equity firms and reintroducing the special recruiting deal offered in the spring. LPL's recruiting deal "made an impact because when you switch broker-dealers there's no revenue coming in for two to three months," Mr. Johnston said Thursday in an interview. "It wasn't the main reason for moving but it would have been difficult to pull this off without it," he said. "So far, it's been phenomenal, with 80% of our clients moving in the first 60 days. It's been much smoother than I anticipated." Said a spokewoman for Cambridge, Cindy Schaus, "Being independent business owners means making decisions based on distinct business objectives, and we respect the importance of choice in terms of independence for advisers."