A Wichita, Kan.-based advisory trio with about $685 million in managed assets is joining LPL Financial from Merrill Lynch, the independent broker/dealer announced.
Michael Caffrey, Derek Keller and Gabriel Parham are launching Air Capital Wealth Management by affiliating with LPL Strategic Wealth Services, the firm’s independent model for advisors leaving wirehouses or regional firms.
The trio opted for LPL after considering the best way to grow the business appropriately while keeping the legacy of the firm’s original leaders intact. According to Caffrey, the trio decided LPL would help them focus on clients and “not corporate mandates.”
“LPL provides us with the flexibility and resources we need to make our own decisions and build our business how we want,” he said.
Parham says the trio’s client base includes doctors, engineers and pilots, farmers, teachers and small business owners. The trio based the team’s name on Wichita’s reputation as the “Air Capital of the World.”
According to SEC records, Michael Caffrey has been registered with Merril since 2013, while Derek Keller registered with AXA Advisors in 2006 before moving to Merrill in 2010. Parham was registered with Wells Fargo in 2013 before moving to Merril four years later.
LPL formed the Strategic Wealth Services model in 2020 for advisors with $200 million or more in AUM seeking back-office support and the autonomy to run their practice as they wish.
According to LPL, SWS gives advisors access to LPL’s open architecture platform and support to launch their practice. This includes onboarding clients, finding office real estate, installing tech and compliance solutions and helping to develop a firm’s brand. Afterward, LPL offers operations support, including a business strategist, marketing partner and CFO.
LPL attracted numerous Merrill advisors and teams to its SWS model this year, including Clayton Ortloff, a Midland, Texas-based advisor with about $820 million in managed assets. He joined the industry in 2006 and spent his entire career with Merrill before moving to LPL, where he launched Heritage Private Wealth.
Earlier this year, a Florida-based team with $580 million in assets also joined SWS from Merrill, saying they wanted more autonomy than they could find in the wirehouse. In February, the Doylestown, Penn.-based duo James Debuque and Timothy Baltz joined SWS from Merrill, managing $1 billion in assets. It was SWS’s 40th new team since its launch.
