Star adviser parts ways with DeWaay, joins LPL

An independent broker-dealer struggling with the fallout from soured real estate investments lost a star broker last week to the industry's behemoth, LPL Financial LLC. Erin Botsford, known as a financial adviser who works with clients to mitigate risk, last Tuesday joined LPL, according to her profile on the BrokerCheck system, which is maintained by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. For the past two years, Ms. Botsford, whose practice directly oversees more than $560 million in client assets, has been affiliated with DeWaay Financial Network LLC. That firm faces a variety of lawsuits and arbitration claims stemming from the sale of failed real estate deals. Ms. Botsford, chief executive of the Botsford Group of Frisco, Texas, was not immediately available to comment about her change of firms.

TOP-RANKED ADVISER

A frequent top-ranked adviser on lists produced by Barron's magazine, Ms. Botsford published her first book, “The Big Retirement Risk: Running Out of Money Before You Run Out of Time” (Greenleaf Book Group Press), this year. DeWaay's general counsel, Brett Agnew, declined to comment about Ms. Botsford's decision to leave the firm. Last month, DeWaay Financial got a reprieve of sorts from its legal problems when Judge John Lloyd of Iowa District Court for Decatur County kept in place a temporary restraining order while he considered combining and certifying two class actions filed against the broker-dealer. The order also prevented more than a dozen arbitration claims filed against the company from proceeding. LPL Financial, meanwhile, has been on a recruiting roll. The addition of Ms. Botsford continues that success. In the first quarter, a net number of 115 new financial advisers joined the firm. [email protected]