LPL Financial Adds $525 Million Georgia Advisory Team From Northwestern Mutual

LPL Financial has added six advisors and approximately $525 million in advisory, brokerage and retirement plan assets with the recruitment of Anchor Financial Partners, a high-net-worth practice based in Vinings, Georgia. The move extends a recent string of larger team additions from Northwestern Mutual and adds a practice built around multigenerational client relationships and advisor succession.

Led by Frank Conner, ChFC, CLU, RICP, CASL; Andrew Runnion; Josh Eisenberg, CFP; Brandon Porter, CFP, AEP; Kyle Brooker, CFP; and Trey Beavers, Anchor serves affluent and high-net-worth individuals, families and business owners. Its work spans clients approaching retirement and those already retired, as well as business owners seeking tax strategy, estate planning and wealth transfer services.

The size of the team gives LPL a sizable addition, while the practice’s structure may matter just as much to its plans. Anchor was designed as one shared business rather than a set of separate advisor books. Each client has a lead advisor, but the partners share responsibility for relationships and bring different specialties to client needs. That approach is intended to support families whose financial decisions may involve multiple generations, a business and retirement planning at the same time.

“Our approach is very relationship focused,” Eisenberg said. He described the work as beginning with understanding what matters to clients and how their wealth can support their lives. For the team, that means engaging with business owners and executives as people with families and goals, rather than treating a portfolio as the whole client relationship.

Runnion similarly emphasized collaboration and continuity. “We've intentionally built a collaborative team where we can bring different perspectives and areas of expertise to the table,” he said. He said the shared model gives clients access to the wider team and helps maintain service as their needs change.

Succession and platform fit

Anchor cited independence, open architecture and infrastructure for organic growth as factors in choosing LPL. The partners also pointed to succession options for experienced advisors nearing retirement. Their stated interest in serving as a home for advisors transitioning out of practice makes continuity part of the team’s growth plans, alongside bringing in new client relationships.

Porter said the partners wanted flexibility in how they serve clients while having access to a platform with scale and capabilities. He added that the team sees LPL’s open architecture and support as useful for expanding client services, developing the business organically and helping preserve client relationships when advisors retire.

That succession focus speaks to a practical issue for advisory firms: client relationships can be difficult to maintain when the advisor who built them leaves. Shared coverage and planned transitions can help firms retain institutional knowledge and keep service connected to clients’ changing needs. The source of that continuity, however, is the team’s own structure and planning; the move itself does not establish how many advisors may eventually use the succession path.

LPL chief growth officer Marc Cohen said Anchor’s collaborative approach and attention to multigenerational planning fit the firm’s direction. He highlighted the partners’ complementary expertise and their effort to prepare the next generation of advisors to continue serving existing relationships.

A continuing run of team additions

Anchor joins a series of Northwestern Mutual practices that have moved to LPL. In May 2026, LPL recruited Emerald Wealth Management, a Seattle practice with $815 million in assets. In September, it added two Salt Lake City practices managing roughly $1 billion combined. Later that fall, Prince Financial Services, another Seattle team with $1 billion, joined LPL’s RIA channel.

Those additions provide context for Anchor’s arrival: LPL has been attracting teams of different sizes from the same firm across several markets. The sequence also shows the range of channels involved, with teams joining LPL’s broker-dealer and RIA platforms. The announced asset figures describe the practices at the time of their moves; they do not, by themselves, show how much new business the teams will generate or how much of their client assets will ultimately transfer.

LPL supports more than 32,000 financial advisors and the wealth management practices of approximately 1,100 financial institutions. It reports custodying approximately $2.6 trillion in brokerage and advisory assets for approximately 8 million Americans. In the second quarter of 2026, CEO Richard Steinmeier said LPL added approximately $23 billion in assets in traditional markets and described the firm’s ability to attract advisors considering a move as industry-leading. The company also said its recruiting pipeline had grown in breadth and depth since then.

LPL is also integrating Commonwealth Financial Network, which it acquired earlier in 2026. The company said the integration was on track for mid-November 2026 as advisory assets reached $1.6 trillion. Recruiting and integration are happening in parallel, so the pace of team additions is only one part of the operational picture: the firm also needs to bring acquired operations into its business while supporting advisors and clients already on its platforms.

Anchor’s community work is another part of its stated identity. The practice has a philanthropy committee that reviews community organizations and nonprofit initiatives, and it provides annual support to Street Grace, a Georgia-based organization working to end domestic minor sex trafficking.

For LPL, the addition brings a six-advisor Georgia practice with approximately $525 million in assets and a defined emphasis on shared client coverage. The next measure of the move will be whether Anchor’s collaborative model and succession plans translate into durable relationships and continued organic growth.