By Kenneth Corbin

A large wealth management practice that had been affiliated with Commonwealth Financial Network is launching as an independent registered investment advisor firm.

The Summit Wealth Group, based in Colorado Springs, Colo., is led by founder and CEO Randy Morris, who says he made the decision to leave Commonwealth before LPL Financial announced the acquisition of its smaller rival. Morris says his team had soured on the independent broker-dealer model and was seeking greater autonomy.

"We wanted there to be more investment solutions that could be geared toward our clients and not the mass of clients in a large broker-dealer, " Morris says. "As an advisor of a broker-dealer, we felt like we were losing control in terms of what our future looked like both from an efficiency standpoint and a cost structure."

Summit committed to going independent and selected SEI as a custodian, and informed Commonwealth on Jan. 29 that it would be ending its affiliation, Morris says. That process was put in motion well before the world learned of LPL's acquisition of Commonwealth, which was announced on March 31.

But there could be more defections from Commonwealth in the works.

"We have had significant interest and inquiries and conversations" with Commonwealth advisors exploring other options, says Gabriel Garcia, SEI's head of RIA client strategy and experience. "The interest has been high -- I think everybody has had this change thrust upon them and it opens up the opportunity to explore what those choices are."

Garcia declined to say if SEI is actively working with Commonwealth advisors to launch their own RIAs.

LPL declined to comment on how many Commonwealth advisors have opted not to join its platform through the acquisition, but provided a statement saying that "many" of its advisors are making the move to LPL.

"As stewards of independence, we respect the choice of all advisors," LPL says. "We're humbled and honored to be partnering with the many Commonwealth advisors who are recommitting to the Commonwealth community, retaining their well-respected service experience while benefiting from the additive value LPL brings to their continued success."

LPL has set a goal of retaining about 90% of Commonwealth's approximately 2,900 advisors.

For Summit, whose roots date back to 1985, the decision to go independent was a long time in the making. The firm currently serves about 3,500 clients with $2.1 billion in assets. Morris says his team is in the process of migrating those assets to the new RIA. Summit maintains 10 offices in five states, with about 23 advisors and 47 support staff. (Morris says the firm consciously maintains a 2:1 ratio of support staff to advisors.)

Summit has executed one full-on acquisition of another firm, but much of its expansion has come through merging in advisors working in the brokerage channel, including several with Commonwealth.

Morris said the IBD model felt like an increasingly poor match for his vision for his firm's growth. He describes SEI as a "boutique" operation that will function as a strategic business partner, handling essential services such as custody and clearing, but also offering an attractive technology stack and access to client services such as tax planning, trust services, and lending.

That aligns with Summit's ambitions for moving upmarket with its client base. Morris says the firm serves many clients in the mass-affluent wealth tier, but also has a substantial high-net-worth clientele and is trying to move more into the ultrahigh-net-worth segment with clients who demand a more holistic service model.

"This decision was partly based on the desire to develop that [client segment] even more so in the near future," Morris says.

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

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May 01, 2025 16:41 ET (20:41 GMT)

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