Ex-Commonwealth FA Team Jumps to Independent Financial Partners 

Hybrid registered investment advisory firm Independent Financial Partners has added an Upstate New York-based five-person advisor team, managing more than $700 million in client assets from Commonwealth Financial Network. 

IFP’s addition, CenterBridge Planning Group, which was founded in 2013, is led by Jeff McCabe, Pat Mahardy, Joe Lazzaro, Brent Schleicher, and Andy Burr. The firm’s transition to IFP marks one of its largest single-team transitions to date, the firm said. 

CenterBridge Planning Group offers financial planning, retirement and estate planning, investment management, insurance solutions, and tax planning to high-net-worth clients. The firm also has offices in Syracuse, Lockport, and Buffalo. 

The former Commonwealth advisors joined the firm between 2014 and 2017, following careers at Axa Advisors, which is now known as Equitable Advisors, according to their BrokerCheck profiles. 

The CenterBridge team stated that IFP’s newly-launched value-participation program “Project 3.14,” which allows advisors to share the proceeds of any future sale or recapitalization of the firm, played a role in their decision to join the Tampa-based firm. 

“[CenterBridge] is exactly the type of sophisticated, client-focused advisory business we built this platform for,” Bill Hamm, CEO of Independent Financial Partners, said. “Our open-architecture model, direct access to leadership, and boutique service structure are designed to support teams with bespoke needs like CenterBridge, and we couldn’t be more excited to welcome them to IFP.” 

Independent Financial Partners launched in 2019, after separating from LPL Financial and transitioned from an office of supervisory jurisdiction to an independent broker-dealer.