LPL snags $4 billion hybrid from Lincoln Financial Advisors

An independent, hybrid advisory firm with about $4 billion in client assets has moved to LPL Financial from Lincoln Financial Advisors. The Waltham, Mass.-based hybrid, Integrated Financial Partners, has 135 financial advisers, according to an announcement Tuesday from LPL. It primarily serves high-net-worth retirees and business owners. Established in 1996, the firm, which operates its registered investment adviser under the name Integrated Wealth Concepts, has 20 offices around the country. Prior to joining LPL, Integrated Financial Partners used Lincoln's corporate RIA. The change allows Integrated to operate its RIA more independently and provides more power to determine its fee structure, according to Paul Saganey, the founder and president. "With the DOL coming down the pike here, we felt having our own RIA and being able to control our own fee structure was the way to go in the future," Mr. Saganey said, in reference to a new Labor Department investment-advice regulation known as the fiduciary rule. Integrated derives the majority of its business through financial planners partnering with accounting firms. Growing this business on a national scale also factored into the decision to switch firms, Mr. Saganey said. Lincoln spokeswoman Kathy Vega said the firm doesn't comment on personnel issues. Prior to joining LPL, Mr. Saganey was registered with Lincoln Financial Advisors from December 2003 through September 2016, according to his BrokerCheck report. Integrated joins LPL at a time when one of its star brokers, Ron Carson, is leaving the nation's largest independent broker-dealer, bringing $2.6 billion in assets to a broker-dealer under the Cetera Financial Group. Mr. Carson's firm, Carson Wealth Management, has $7.4 billion in total client assets. It also comes as talks of a potential LPL sale swirl, with Charles Schwab Corp. emerging as a potential interested party.