&Partners Lures Second Commonwealth Team in as Many Weeks

&Partners, a St. Louis-based hybrid broker/dealer launched by David Kowach, the former president and CEO of Wells Fargo Advisors, has recruited another advisor team from Commonwealth Financial Network, in the wake of LPL Financial closing its deal to acquire the broker/dealer.

Lumitas Wealth Strategies, a Woodbury, Minn.-based team with $520 million in pre-transition assets under management, has joined &Partners this week, the firm confirmed. Lumitas is led by co-founders and advisors Dana Schwinck and Justin Mishacoff, who left Commonwealth after three years with the b/d. Prior to that, the team was with Wells Fargo.

They’re joined by Joyce Murphy, client experience specialist, Jennifer Rath, wealth management associate, and Mary Bolling, a client service associate.

Lumitas represents the latest example of &Partners’ recruiting success, particularly with female advisors. Of the 87 teams that have joined the firm, 30% were founded by a woman, and nearly 40% include at least one female advisor. As of July 31, &Partners oversaw $35.7 billion in AUM.

This follows news last week that the b/d added Kevin Braddock, an Estill, S.C.-based wealth advisor with nearly $84 billion in pre-transition AUM, from Commonwealth. In recent months, Kowach has had much success luring advisors from his former firm, Wells Fargo Advisors, including Four Corners Wealth, a Russellville, Ark., team with a pre-transition AUM of $769 million, and Tuckaway Capital, a Richmond, Va. team.

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Kowach and co-founders Kristi Mitchem and John Alexander have aggressive growth plans for the next three years, with a target of 150 teams, $120 billion in assets, and $800 million in revenue.

LPL Financial recently closed on its planned acquisition of Commonwealth, the Waltham, Mass.-based IBD, which has 3,000 advisors and $305 billion in assets. LPL said it met its retention target of 90% of Commonwealth advisors and that it was pushing out its final integration timing to the fourth quarter of 2026.

In the wake of the acquisition, Commonwealth has lost many advisors to rival broker/dealers or the RIA channel. LPL CEO Rich Steinmeier said that despite noise in many of the trade publications about Commonwealth advisors looking to change firms rather than join the much larger LPL, he felt good about advisor retention.