A trio of Commonwealth Financial Network teams totaling nearly $400 million in assets is leaving for Savvy Advisors in the wake of LPL Financial’s acquisition of Commonwealth.
It’s the latest defection as LPL strives to meet its goal of retaining 90% of Commonwealth advisors. The moves push Savvy’s total wealth manager count above 100.
The teams from Commonwealth include Innovative Financial Solutions, a Carmel, Ind.-based firm managing $250 million in assets (and will rebrand as Mosaic Wealth Advisors at Savvy). They specialize in tax, retirement and financial planning, and are led by Edward Wildermuth, Steven Meier and Clint Seefeldt (who specializes in working with physicians and medical professionals).
Additionally, the Houston-based Horizon Advisory Group and Macomb, Mich.-based Atticus Wealth Management are joining Savvy from Commonwealth.
Horizon manages $108 million, with a team led by Berkley Arrants, Angelique Ayala and Stephanie Gumm, and focuses on personal and business financial, estate and retirement planning (with services for clients going through divorce). Steve Grogan manages $37 million at Atticus, focusing on wealth services that include investment management and tax planning.
According to Wildermuth, his team looked forward to “leveraging Savvy’s expertise, technology, marketing resources and multi-custodial platform flexibility,” saying he’d become an advisor largely to “chart my own career path.”
According to Savvy, the RIA operates on Fidelity and Schwab platforms, benefitting Commonwealth advisors who make the jump (and often custody with Fidelity).
LPL Financial announced its acquisition of the privately held Commonwealth in March, purchasing the Waltham, Mass.-based firm for approximately $2.7 billion in cash. (At the time, the firm had 3,000 advisors and $305 billion in assets under management.)
LPL has maintained that it is on track to meet its goal of retaining 90% of Commonwealth advisors in-house after the transition, with Commonwealth assets expected to move onto the LPL platform by the fourth quarter of 2026.
Since the deal’s closing, Commonwealth teams have decamped for other firms, including Cetera, Osaic and Raymond James, among others. According to AdvizorPro data, nearly 250 known advisor defections from Commonwealth occurred, including to Akradios Capital, Cambridge, Hub International, Kestra and Summit Wealth Group.
Rival firms are luring Commonwealth teams with pay packages, open architecture technology stacks, and, in cases like Savvy, staying on Fidelity Investments’ National Financial Services custody platform.
During LPL’s third-quarter earnings call last week, CEO Rich Steinmeier said that advisors representing nearly 80% of Commonwealth assets have signed with LPL (totaling about $275 billion in client assets). According to Steinmeier, LPL is still on track to hit a 90% advisor retention rate.
“The Commonwealth advisors are really thoughtful and they’re a very diligent community, which really doesn’t surprise us given that they include many of the best advisors in the industry,” he said. “We’ve been dedicated to making sure that we can give them all the information they need to make their very best decision.”