A San Diego–based firm whose advisors had previously been affiliated with LPL Financial is returning to partner with the independent broker/dealer. Nautica Wealth Advisors, which manages about $250 million in advisory and brokerage assets, will be rejoining LPL from Cetera.
The firm is led by Jayne Byrne, who’d been affiliated with LPL for 31 years until 2016, as well as Mike and Steve Lerner, who both had been with LPL for more than a decade before that same year. The firm offers financial and planning and wealth management services for professionals and families.
In 2016, their OSJ at the time changed partners away from LPL, but Byrne said the return to LPL felt like “coming home.”
“As we set out to define our growth strategy moving into 2021 and even into 2022, we knew LPL would be the right partner to help us have greater capacity to serve our clients by simplifying processes,” she said. “And by leveraging LPL as the custodian, we have everything back under one roof, with the ability to still do both advisory and brokerage.”
Nautica’s team also noticed a shift in LPL’s culture, with an emphasis on helping advisors differentiate firms (the company’s worked to make its recruiting and transition processes more efficient during the past several years). According to Steve Lerner, the industry picture and the benefits of LPL only became clearer during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“As the industry changes, we recognized a need to be nimble and do what’s right for our clients,” he said. “We have been so impressed with LPL’s service transformation and technology evolution, and it’s clear that this new partnership will help us be more efficient and impactful in how we serve our clients.”
The partnership is the latest in a number of teams joining LPL; last week, the firm announced it had recruited Verus Capital Partners, a $1 billion firm that joined from Securities America. Other recent firms that joined LPL include a $2 billion advisory duo who joined from Morgan Stanley, as well as Trilith Wealth Management, a Naples, Fla.–based team with $200 million in managed assets that joined from Wells Fargo Advisors.
