Cetera Financial Group has added financial advisors Jim Tucker and Patrick Bria, along with their Tucker Bria Wealth Strategies team, which oversees about $420 million in assets under administration, the San Diego-based firm announced. The Durham, N.C.-based team joined through Cetera's Summit Financial Networks after more than a decade at Commonwealth Financial Network, which is owned by LPL Financial. "We were deliberate about choosing Commonwealth, and we were just as deliberate about where we went next," Tucker said in a statement.
"We wanted a partner strong enough to provide the compliance, technology and back-office support we didn't want to build ourselves, but flexible enough to let us keep running our business exactly the way we always have." Tucker and Bria, who have been friends since their teenage years in Pittsburgh and were teammates on Duke University's varsity swim team, co-founded their practice in 2013. The firm provides financial planning and wealth management to individuals and families, including wealth creation, preservation, inheritance and business sales. The move to Cetera allowed the firm to maintain its existing custodian, Fidelity's National Financial Services, and continue using third-party technology already part of its client service model, according to the announcement.
The win is part of a concerted effort started by Cetera after LPL's acquisition last year to lure Commonwealth advisors to one of its broker/dealer affiliations. LPL executives said during its most recent earnings call that the firm has retained Commonwealth assets in the mid-80% range and expects to reach its target of 90% client asset retention. CEO Rich Steinmeier also said that as LPL nears the final conversion of Commonwealth advisors to the platform, it has greater capacity for recruiting efforts.
Cetera, which is owned by Genstar Capital, manages about $630 billion in AUA and $296 billion in AUM. Chicago-based RIA aggregator Hightower Advisors announced that Valley Financial Group, an Ambler, Pa.-based wealth management practice with about $275 million in AUM, will join its growing Hightower Signature Wealth. The transaction marks the second external acquisition by Hightower Signature Wealth this year and advances the hybrid RIAs' strategy of expanding through advisory practices looking for scale and centralized operations.
Valley gives financial planning and investment management services to individuals, families and businesses throughout Greater Philadelphia, including business owners, corporate employees and first responders. "As we considered Valley's next chapter, we wanted a partner that shared our client-first philosophy and could provide the resources to continue elevating the service we provide our clients," Managing Partner Kevin McGarry said in a statement. Upon closing of the deal later this summer, Valley's employees will join Hightower Signature Wealth and continue to support clients from the Ambler office.
McGarry and Managing Partner Ed Woehlcke owned the firm, according to its most recent Form ADV. Following the addition, Hightower Signature Wealth will have approximately $40 billion in assets under management, more than 160 advisors and more than 35 locations nationwide, the firm said. Independent Financial Partners added two former Commonwealth firms, Van Horn Financial Services and Severn Financial Advisors, representing more than $400 million in client assets, according to the Tampa, Fla.-based hybrid broker/dealer and RIA platform.
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