Minnesota Firm With $96 Billion in Assets Disaffiliates With LPL

Plymouth, Minn.-based registered investment adviser Wealth Enhancement Group is disaffiliating from LPL Financial, as confirmed by the independent broker-dealer and reported by third-party media sources.

The RIA – which has more than $96 billion in client assets, including $4 billion at LPL – has operated as an office of supervisory jurisdiction of LPL for the last 17 years. Offices of supervisory jurisdiction are generally wealth managers that affiliate their brokerage business with an independent broker-dealer but operate their own RIA entity. The relationship commonly provides the offices of supervisory jurisdiction better pricing and a level of support with recruitment.

The change will take effect June 30, 2025.

“LPL and [Wealth Enhancement Group, or WEG] have enjoyed a mutually beneficial partnership for many years,” said Jen Roche, a spokesperson for LPL. “However, as both companies continue to evolve, WEG will no longer have a relationship with LPL. We remain committed to ensuring a smooth transition for WEG advisers and their clients, and we’re confident this shift will ultimately benefit and enhance LPL’s ability to support our valued clients. This decision aligns with our strategic intent to focus our investments on partnerships that reflect LPL’s mission and operating models.”

WEG is backed by TA Associates and Onex Corporation.

Like LPL, a spokesperson for WEG said the separation was amicable, “as each [company] pursues its own growth objectives.”

“We have appreciated their partnership over the years and are working in close cooperation to smoothly transition the approximately 10% of our clients’ assets affiliated with LPL to other custodians and partners,” according to the WEG spokesperson.

As recapped by Wealth Management, who first reported the WEG/LPL split, Dan Arnold, former chief executive officer of LPL, said on a July 2024 earnings call that there were a “couple of isolated” offices of supervisory jurisdiction that were “strategically misaligned with [LPL’s] mission and model because they were limiting advisers’ ability to choose how and where they do business.” Arnold also said the two firms represented $20 billion in combined assets.

Matt Audette, chief financial officer and president of LPL, added on that same earnings call that the offices of supervisory jurisdiction weren’t growing and were actually a drag on organic growth.

In late July, Merit Financial Advisors, with $12 billion in assets, disaffiliated from LPL and moved its business to PKS Investments.

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