Omaha Duo With $605M AUM Join LPL From Principal Securities

An advisor duo out of Omaha, Neb. with about $605 million in managed advisory, brokerage and retirement assets is joining LPL Financial from Principal Securities.

Patrick “Pat” Ricketts and Mindy Helfrich of Vintage Financial Group have worked together since 2012 and have more than 40 years of collective industry experience. 

Other staff at Vintage Financial will also make the move, including Vice President Kristin Ricketts (Pat Ricketts’ wife), Tricia Seitelbach-Green, the firm’s director of client operations, Melissa Hays, the director of business operations, and other support staff.

According to Helfrich, the duo interviewed a number of wealth management firms before settling on LPL Financial as a partner. She said LPL’s integrated tech offerings would allow the firm to be “nimble” in navigating changes in the industry.

“Every interaction we’ve had with LPL shows that they are in the business of helping advisors focus on their clients,” she said.

LPL works with about 22,000 financial advisors at about 1,100 enterprises and approximately 550 RIA firms throughout the country. Though the IBD revealed earlier this year that its total recruited assets were down 8% from 2021 to $82 billion, the firm boasted a record second quarter for recruiting in 2023, adding $19 billion in assets prior to large enterprises, with total recruited assets for the 12 months prior up to $60 billion. 

The results followed the firm’s announcement that it would acquire the wealth management business of Crown Capital Securities, a California-based broker/dealer with about 260 advisors and $6.5 billion in assets. LPL expects to onboard those advisors by early 2024, according to CEO Dan Arnold.

Among the teams and advisors joining LPL this year were three advisor teams from Wells Fargo with $1.45 billion in total client assets, who combined to launch Carnegie Private Wealth, becoming the largest team yet to join LPL’s Strategic Wealth Services (SWS) division. Earlier this month, a father/son duo collectively managing $1.2 billion in assets left Morgan Stanley to launch the independent practice The Francis Group with the SWS division. 

Prudential Financial announced last month that it would be moving its retail brokerage and investment advisory assets from its previous third-party custodian Fidelity to LPL Financial. LPL will build a new tech platform for 2,600 advisors, who oversee about $50 billion client assets. The transition is expected to be completed in late 2024, according to LPL.