Former UBS Team With $1.25 Billion in Assets Joins LPL Strategic Wealth
Financial advisers Jeffrey S. “Jeff” Allen, Steve N. Armaly, Brian A. Blackburn, and Michael S. Lee have launched a new independent practice – Ox Road Capital – through affiliation with LPL Financial’s supported independence model, LPL Strategic Wealth. They reported serving approximately $1.25 billion in advisory, brokerage, and retirement plan assets and join LPL from UBS.
Based in Greenville, S.C., Allen, Armaly, Blackburn and Lee joined forces in 2016. They built their business model by leveraging their individual strengths and now serve a national client base that includes ultra-high-net-worth individuals, pre-retirees and retirees, C-suite executives, entrepreneurs, medical professionals, and private foundations and endowments.
“We created the current version of the team in 2016, recognizing that our diverse strengths made us a good team,” said Armaly. “The four of us allowed each other to focus on those areas that we found most rewarding. This allows us to spend much of our time in the areas that we love and give us energy.”
Blackburn added, “As a team, we do not make a decision without a unanimous vote, whether it is big or small. As for our clients, we are interested in a relationship, not a transaction. We say we don’t build a house or start a business without a plan, and we say the same thing about building someone’s financial future. You can’t do it without a plan.”
The advisers at Ox Road said they began to think about success and legacy and recognized that they need to make a move that would allow them to build something to outlast them, the founders.
“In all, we are excited about the ability to build our own brand.” said Lee.
After a period of due diligence, the team chose to affiliate LPL Strategic Wealth Services, saying they found it to combine the freedom and flexibility of entrepreneurship with hands-on business services and support to help practices thrive, both operationally and strategically.
“We started to narrow down things we didn’t want such as: being a W2 employee, taking on an equity partner, and hiring another partner to the firm. It became clear that the space we were targeting was the supported independent model space,” said Allen. “LPL has thought of everything, and we were impressed by the support offered. We’ve picked the right partner because of the way LPL has guided us through the process. I think the icing on the cake was visiting the LPL office in Fort Mill and sitting down with CEO Rich Steinmeier, where he articulated the vision for the firm.”
The Ox Road Capital team includes wealth strategy associates: Marley Landrum, AAMS, CRPC; Brandon Mills; and Nick Ray; and client service associates: Kyle Goff, Jack Shubert, Wendy Levi, and Clark Rettberg.
Lee added, “It was clear that LPL is ahead of the curve and a disrupter of the industry – from technology to service, speed, flexibility. and creativity. We’ve seen more software rolled out during our due diligence period than we have seen before.”
The team’s move from UBS is the latest in a series of departures at the Swiss banking giant. Also affiliated with LPL Strategic Wealth, financial advisers Ronald Ewing, Edward Macha, Alex Pittz, Brian Gudgel, and Andrew Curiel IV launched Decorum Wealth Management earlier this month, a team that reported serving $1.8 billion in advisory, brokerage and retirement plan assets.
Last month, AltsWire reported that hybrid registered investment advisory Sanctuary Wealth added Dial Square Private Wealth to its growing network of partner firms. The Orange County-based firm had been with UBS since 2013 and reported $1.2 billion in client assets. And in May 2025, Sanctuary snagged a $2 billion team from UBS: 1280 Financial Partners.
Also, in July 2025, financial advisers managing over $480 million in client assets left UBS for the independent channel of Ameriprise Financial Inc. They joined Q5 Wealth Management, an established Ameriprise practice that transitioned from UBS to Ameriprise in 2024.
Click here to visit the AltsWire directory page.
