LPL Adds $1.6B Conte Wealth Advisors From Cambridge
Conte Wealth Advisors LLC, or CWA, a third-generation, family-owned wealth management practice based in Camp Hill, Pa., has joined LPL Financial’s broker-dealer and registered investment adviser platform, bringing roughly $1.6 billion in advisory, brokerage, and retirement plan assets from Cambridge Investment Research, LPL said Monday.
CWA is led by financial adviser Tony Conte. The practice traces back to Conte’s grandfather, Sam Conte, who entered the financial services industry in the 1950s; Conte’s father, Frank Conte, later joined the firm and continues to serve clients. Conte’s brother-in-law, Joe Henriques, is managing director and principal wealth adviser. Since Conte took over the firm’s leadership in 2012, CWA has grown into a 24-adviser practice with offices across multiple states, according to LPL.
The firm serves business owners, high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth individuals and families through what Conte described as a planning-first approach addressing clients’ investments, businesses, and broader financial lives.
“We treat every client relationship as though they deserve the experience of a family-focused office,” Conte said. “Our role is to help guide clients toward not only suitable investment strategies, but also suitable financial decisions for themselves, their businesses and often their employees. It’s a comprehensive approach built on long-term relationships and thoughtful planning.”
Conte said the firm’s collaborative culture, in which advisers meet weekly to discuss client strategies, was central to CWA’s growth. In choosing LPL, Conte pointed to the firm’s technology, adviser-support resources, and capacity to help CWA keep recruiting growth-oriented advisers as it scales.
CWA’s move caps an active stretch for LPL’s recruiting operation. On Aug. 6, AltsWire reported that LPL and Private Advisor Group welcomed Paxel Financial Consulting, a roughly $300 million practice formerly affiliated with Cetera. A day after the CWA announcement, LPL said Preferred Financial Group, a roughly $230 million practice serving the Battle Creek and Kalamazoo, Mich., areas, was leaving Harbour Investments Inc. for LPL’s platform.
Those additions are modest next to the scale of LPL’s largest recent move: an April deal, structured in partnership with Private Advisor Group, to acquire Mariner Advisor Network’s business, covering about $31 billion in assets and 367 advisers. That transaction followed LPL’s acquisitions of The Investment Center and Commonwealth Financial Network, part of a multiyear acquisition push that has added billions of dollars in assets to LPL’s platform even as the firm continues to court smaller, independent practices such as CWA.
Citywire reported that Commonwealth clients will convert to LPL Financial’s platform from Fidelity’s National Financial Services on or around Nov. 14.
LPL Financial Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: LPLA) supports more than 32,000 financial advisers and roughly 1,100 financial institutions, custodying approximately $2.6 trillion in brokerage and advisory assets on behalf of about 8 million Americans, according to the company.
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