LPL Hires RBC Arizona Team to New Channel

LPL Financial has attracted three brokers in Tucson, AZ, to its recently launched “Strategic Wealth Services” channel aimed at advisors from employee-channel firms seeking more support than the typical independent broker.

The trio that had been managing about $380 million of client assets at RBC Wealth Management-U.S. are 36-year industry veteran George Chardukian, Adam Goldstein and Maria Peralta, who have 13 and five years of experience, respectively.

They are the fifth team to affiliate with the SWS channel since LPL launched it in April to take advantage of the growing trend of “breakaways” to independence and diversify its recruiting base away from other independent brokers and insurance firms, LPL said on Thursday.

LPL markets SWS as offering advisors all-in pay of 60% to 80% of client revenue, after deduction of service fees—lower than what advisors can receive through LPL’s traditional structure but higher than the approximately 50% payout ceiling at firms with employee models. Brokers in the independent firm models assume a range of administrative, real estate, trading, marketing and compliance costs that traditional firms provide.

LPL’s SWS channel offers more of those services as part of its SWS package to simplify transitions. The firm, which works with more than 17,000 advisors, generally aims SWS at brokers overseeing at least $200 million, higher than its typical broker. A Wells Fargo bank-based team of two advisors in New Jersey who LPL said was managing $500 million joined the channel in September.

“We didn’t want to start an entire business from the ground up,” Chardukian said in a prepared statement. He also noted his belief that he will be able to more easily transition his business to Goldstein under the LPL umbrella.

Chardukian, whose team will use LPL’s corporate RIA and custodial platforms for fee-based accounts along with its broker-dealer on commission products, worked for the first 18 years of his brokerage career at Robert W. Baird and its former parent Northwestern Mutual, according to BrokerCheck. He had been with RBC since 2002 in Tucson.

Goldstein, who worked with Chardukian as a college intern and joined him full-time in 2007, is president and cofounder of the practice that they have dubbed Adara Wealth Management, according to LPL. Goldstein ranked #47 on Forbes’ 2020 list of best-in-state wealth advisors in Arizona.

They and Peralta, who joined them almost three years ago after two-and-a-half years at Merrill Lynch, switched to LPL on Monday with Amy Montiel,  a client associate.

Randal Cox, 67, a fourth advisor on their former team, said he opted to stay with RBC, along with a client associate. Cox, who started his career 28 years ago with RBC predecessor Rauscher Pierce Refsnes, said he managed around $90 million in assets and was content to retire in place.

“I’ve seen broker teams that have left and come back, finding the other side was not greener,” he said. “At this point in my career, I might as well get the gold watch.”