A $1.5 billion Rochester, N.Y.-based team is joining Commonwealth Financial Network from Osaic, one of the largest affiliated teams to partner with the firm.
Angelo Planning Group’s 30 team members include founder and managing partner Ralph Angelo, Registered Principal Todd Harris and more than a dozen other advisors. According to Angelo, the team is a “one-stop shop” for clients’ financial needs, “from retirement to estate planning to Medicare, long-term care and other planning specialties.”
“We have ambitious growth plans made possible by a spectacular rising generation of financial advisors,” Angelo continued. “Our move to Commonwealth ensures the durability of our service-oriented business model.”
The firm’s assets have grown tenfold since its founding 15 years ago. It operates on a word-of-mouth referral system with no asset minimums. In addition to the culture fit, Angelo’s team found Commonwealth’s compliance and tech offerings enticing.
Commonwealth was founded in 1979, with headquarters on each coast, in Waltham, Mass. and San Diego (as well as an Ohio-based operations center). The firm includes about 2,345 independent advisors managing over $344 billion in assets.
Commonwealth rocked the industry in March when it announced LPL Financial would purchase the firm for about $2.7 billion in cash, linking it with a company often lauded for its boutique, advisor-focused feel.
Commonwealth will retain its brand in the deal. The acquisition is set to close in the second half of the year, and Commonwealth advisors will convert to the LPL platform in 2026.
In the wake of the deal, there’s been a rush on Commonwealth’s independent advisors, with competitors offering lucrative recruiting deals. Among those firms was Osaic, which offered a package of 115 to 125 basis points on AUM, with deals potentially ending as high as 150 basis points (Osaic and Commonwealth also share a clearing firm). Other firms boosting their recruitment deals include Cetera, Raymond James and Kestra.
According to LPL Financial leaders, the firm remains “in line” to meet its 90% advisor retention rate goal for Commonwealth advisors.
During the firm’s first quarter earnings call, President and Chief Financial Officer Matt Audette questioned smaller firms’ ability to “assert themselves into this market opportunity,” believing they’d find it difficult to be competitive with LPL’s capabilities, which include promises to retain the culture and transfer over 90% of client accounts without repapering.
“I’m sure they will have the ability to carve unique positions in the market, but I think day by day it becomes more challenging for players that are not at scale to compete effectively with firms like ourselves, who not only have scale capacity to invest but have been committed,” he said.
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