Where Commonwealth advisors went.
After LPL announced its acquisition, Commonwealth advisors had a choice to make. Of the 3,518 advisors in the starting cohort, 791 registered with another firm over the next twelve months.
This is competitive movement, not total attrition. The report follows registrations to another firm; retirements and advisors who left the industry are not visible in the destination data.
Registered somewhere else
Competitive departures from the original 3,518-advisor cohort.
Roughly four times the market pace
22.5% cohort churn compared with 5.7% across the industry.
Captured by four firms
Raymond James, Kestra, Cetera, and Cambridge concentrated the movement.
Median Commonwealth tenure
The advisors moving were established, not predominantly recent arrivals.
The exit accelerated after the deal closed.
Movement built through the summer and peaked in October 2025 - two months after the August 1 close. Registration changes lag advisor decisions, so the peak is evidence of execution timing, not necessarily when advisors first decided to leave.
Competitive departures by month
The first and last months are partial. Focus or hover on any column for its exact count.
Four firms captured half the movement.
Raymond James led with 177 advisors, followed by Kestra with 112. The concentration at the top matters, but so does the long tail: the 791 advisors ultimately spread across 118 destination firms.
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Experienced advisors drove the movement.
The median departing advisor had spent 6.4 years at Commonwealth and 19 years in the industry. Sixty-two percent had at least 15 years of industry experience.
Where their registrations landed
Destination business model, where the receiving firm could be classified.
Tenure when they departed
Time registered with Commonwealth before the competitive move.
The movement arrived in waves - and it was national.
Same-month, same-destination clusters suggest coordinated branch or team movement, although registration data cannot confirm team membership. Geographically, Massachusetts led, but departures reached major advisor markets across the country.
Largest departure waves
Same destination and registration-end month among the departing cohort.
Where the advisors practice
Primary state for the departing advisors; Commonwealth's home state leads.
What the data suggests - and what it cannot prove.
Registration records make the pattern visible. They do not reveal advisor intent, client movement, production, assets, satisfaction, or whether any destination was the right choice.
Two firms absorbed much of the exit
Raymond James and Kestra captured 289 advisors, or 37% of the cohort's competitive departures.
The peak followed the close
October's peak is consistent with the long execution cycle behind advisor transitions.
The bulk LPL conversion is excluded
The remaining Commonwealth registrations had not yet appeared as an LPL platform conversion at the report date.
The quieter story sits in the long tail
Many advisors chose boutique, newly formed, or still-unclassified firms rather than a small set of national platforms.
The market pattern is not the personal decision.
Whether you are reconsidering your platform or protecting the value of the practice you built, the next step should begin with fit - not a recruiting headline or an upfront check.
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Not sure which path is yours?One confidential conversation can clarify the question before it commits you to an answer.
Start a confidential conversationA fixed cohort, followed for twelve months.
The report begins with advisors registered at Commonwealth on June 15, 2025, then identifies members of that same cohort registered with a different firm by June 16, 2026.
Source and method
U.S. SEC Investment Adviser Public Disclosure registration data. Headcounts are reconstructed from registration begin and end dates, and destination brand variants are rolled up to their operating family. Broker-only representatives are not included. This is a fixed-window snapshot; the daily-refreshed Firm Churn report uses a rolling window, so its Commonwealth figures will differ slightly. Figures are directional.How to read the numbers
- Cohort churn
- The denominator is Commonwealth's registered-advisor headcount at the starting date. Records represent IAR registrations, not production, assets, or revenue.
- Competitive loss
- Only advisors who appear at another firm count. Retirements and industry exits are not visible at the destination end.
- The LPL conversion
- The bulk conversion had not appeared in the registration feed by the data date. Under the report's rollup rules, an intra-family conversion is not competitive churn.
- Departure waves
- Same-month, same-destination clusters are signals of coordinated movement, not confirmation of team membership.
- Directional
- Use these records to identify patterns and questions, not as an audited advisor or asset scorecard.