LPL Financial Nabs $1.5B Advisory Team from Rival Kestra

LPL Financial announced that a $1.5 billion advisory team has joined its broker-dealer, registered investment advisor and custodial platforms from rival Kestra Financial.

Arizona-based Watermark Wealth Management, which has offices in Scottsdale, Chandler and Payson, along with a location in Minneapolis, has a team of 16 advisors and 12 support staff.

The firm, founded in 2009 during the financial crisis, is led by founding partners Carmen Cercone and Kyle Richardson, as well as Aaron Gordon, Rich Liberante and Jake Cercone.

Watermark has grown from $230 million in assets under management to $1.5 billion in 14 years, LPL said.

The Watermark team opted to move to LPL because it was seeking more stability and a partner with scale.

“As a Fortune 500 company, LPL heavily invests in technology enhancements and other integrated capabilities with open architecture, making it seamless to operate several programs without having to jump into different systems,” said Gordon.

LPL, based in San Diego, has been growing primarily through advisor recruiting, with the second quarter being the company’s largest ever. Last month, it reported $19 billion in recruited assets, increasing its advisor-count by 421 to 21,942.

LPL had nearly $1.3 trillion in advisory and brokerage assets at the end of the second quarter, the company reported.