LPL Ameriprise Expands Private Wealth and Brokerage Services

LPL Financial, the parent company of Ameriprise Financial, has expanded its private wealth and brokerage services to meet the growing needs of affluent clients. This move aims to provide a more comprehensive range of services to cater to the diverse financial needs of high net worth individuals.

Ameriprise Financial's private wealth management services now offer customized investment solutions, estate planning, and tax planning. These services are designed to help clients achieve their long-term financial goals and protect their wealth.

With this expansion, LPL Ameriprise can now provide a wider range of services to its clients, including investment advice, portfolio management, and wealth transfer planning. This move is expected to enhance the overall client experience and increase the firm's competitiveness in the private wealth management space.

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LPL Financial recently welcomed a team of advisors from Ameriprise Financial, including Greg Mullaney, Colleen Kelly Abate, and Peter Pagano, who joined to launch Somnio Wealth.

The team, which also includes several support staff, brought $300 million in advisory, brokerage, and retirement plan assets to LPL Financial.

LPL Financial has been recruiting advisors from Ameriprise Financial, as well as from other firms, in a competitive market where advisors are looking for new opportunities.

Ameriprise Financial has accused LPL Financial of encouraging its brokers to take confidential client information with them when they leave, but LPL Financial has called the lawsuit "frivolous" and said it's meant to intimidate brokers who might consider joining them.

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LPL Financial LLC has just welcomed a five-person advisory team from Ameriprise Financial, managing approximately $650 million in assets.

The team, known as Apex Private Wealth Advisors, is based in Santa Rosa, CA, and consists of Brett Howard, Marco Rivera, Brooks Crissey, Henry “Hank” DesJardins, and Ryan Mason.

Apex was founded in 2017 by Howard and DesJardins, and has since grown into a full-service ensemble practice specializing in various areas of wealth management.

The team largely serves high-net-worth individuals, families, and businesses, and has cultivated many meaningful relationships with clients by offering multigenerational wealth planning and white glove services.

The transition to LPL was motivated by the firm's technology, operational efficiencies, and broader range of resources.

LPL has added two other former Ameriprise advisors this year, with Guardian Partners Wealth Management joining in May and Somnio Wealth joining in April.

A $300M Kentucky team from Ameriprise has joined LPL Financial. The team, led by Greg Mullaney, Colleen Kelly Abate, and Peter Pagano, brings $300 million in advisory, brokerage, and retirement plan assets to LPL.

They launched an independent financial practice called Somnio Wealth based in Louisville, KY. The team includes several other members, including an operations practice manager, client service specialist, and marketing specialist.

The team was looking to pair their client-centered philosophy with their desire to move to independence. They interviewed several firms before selecting LPL as the best fit for their business.

LPL's platforms will support Somnio Wealth's independent financial practice. The team is excited to take their client experience to the next level with LPL's support.

The Somnio Wealth team joins Matthew Edwards, a Sarasota, FL-based advisor with $210 million in advisory, brokerage, and retirement plan assets, who also recently joined LPL from Ameriprise Financial.

LPL views the Broker Protocol as a "floor", setting a minimum for what sorts of information departing advisors can transfer to new firms.

Ameriprise, on the other hand, is trying to treat the protocol like a "ceiling", setting an uppermost limit on what's fair game to take. This could have a chilling effect on independent advisors' ability to change firms.

LPL first became aware of Ameriprise's position on the broker protocol in a 2021 Financial Industry Regulatory Authority arbitration hearing over a separate recruiting dispute.

LPL Financial is accused of encouraging brokers to steal trade secrets from Ameriprise. This includes sensitive client data.

A father-son advisory team in Michigan allegedly removed bankers boxes full of confidential documents from Ameriprise premises before transitioning to LPL Financial. These documents contained client social security numbers, account numbers, and routing numbers for 6,000 customers and prospective customers.

Certain emails allegedly included investment strategies and five-year plans for clients. Ameriprise won a temporary restraining order to prevent those former brokers from soliciting Ameriprise clients.

The LPL and Ameriprise cases are a stark reminder that SEC-regulated entities can't afford to ignore the risks of electronic communications.

Firms must keep complete records of all electronic communications, regardless of the messaging platform used. This includes emails, chats, and even social media posts.

Having policies against unauthorized apps isn't enough – firms need to implement effective technical controls and monitoring processes to enforce those policies.

Recordkeeping is about more than just archiving data; it's also about enabling proper supervision of employee activities and protecting clients.

Here are the key takeaways from the LPL and Ameriprise cases:

These cases should serve as a wake-up call for SEC-regulated entities to prioritize data governance, electronic communications capture, and proactive monitoring.