Wealth Enhancement Group, a Minneapolis-based registered investment advisor with more than $96 billion in client assets, is disaffiliating from LPL Financial, the independent broker/dealer has confirmed. WEG operated as a super office of supervisory jurisdiction of LPL for the last 17 years, and the change will take effect June 30, 2025.

“LPL and WEG have enjoyed a mutually beneficial partnership for many years,” said LPL spokeswoman Jen Roche. “However, as both companies continue to evolve, WEG will no longer have a relationship with LPL. We remain committed to ensuring a smooth transition for WEG advisors and their clients, and we’re confident this shift will ultimately benefit and enhance LPL’s ability to support our valued clients. This decision aligns with our strategic intent to focus our investments on partnerships that reflect LPL’s mission and operating models.”

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A Wealth Enhancement spokesperson said it was an amicable separation, “as each pursues its own growth objectives.”

“We have appreciated their partnership over the years and are working in close cooperation to smoothly transition the approximately 10% of our clients’ assets affiliated with LPL to other custodians and partners.”

Related: RIA Edge Podcast: WEG’s Jim Cahn on the Drivers of RIA M&A in 2023

The firm declined to name its future broker/dealer. 

On a July earnings call, LPL’s former CEO Dan Arnold said there were a “couple of isolated” OSJ firms that were “strategically misaligned with our mission and model because they were limiting advisors’ ability to choose how and where they do business.” He also said the two firms represented $20 billion in combined assets.

Matt Audette, CFO and president of LPL, added on that same earnings call that these OSJs weren’t growing and were actually a drag on organic growth.

In late July, Merit Financial Advisors, with $12 billion in assets, disaffiliated from LPL and moved its business to PKS Investments.

“At the end of the day, these separations will strengthen our overall ecosystem and position us to better serve the great partners on our platform,” Arnold said on the July earnings call.

In October, Arnold was fired for cause after an investigation by an outside law firm found “he made statements to employees that violated LPL’s Code of Conduct. Rich Steinmeier, who was managing director and chief growth officer, has since been named to replace him as CEO.

As of Sept. 30, WEG had $4 billion of brokerage assets held at LPL. 

Founded in 1997, WEG has grown assets from around $4 billion to more than $96 billion since selling a majority stake to Lightyear Capital in 2015.

WEG was overseeing some $12 billion by the time TA Associates bought out Lightyear’s investment in 2019. When Onex Partners came on board as a majority owner in 2021, the firm was managing close to $40 billion. 

The firm has been aggressively acquiring RIAs over the last couple of years. In 2023, it completed 18 acquisitions, and 15 deals so far this year, following its most recent deal with M&R Capital Management, a Summit, N.J.-based RIA with more than $536 million in client assets.

In July, a man who claims to have co-founded WEG filed a lawsuit against the RIA, claiming it reneged on paying him “finder’s fees” for firms the company acquired.

Gerald “Jerry” Bernard filed the suit in Minnesota’s Hennepin County, seeking more than $50,000. According to the suit, Bernard has over 40 years in the wealth management industry and co-founded WEG with his wife, Madeline, in 1996.