Newly-Independent IHT Wealth Management Aims To Welcome Older Advisors

Anna Hallissey

18 July 2014

A six-strong team of advisors has left Merrill Lynch to launch IHT Wealth Management under the wing of LPL Financial.

The independent financial advisory firm will serve mass-affluent and high net worth clients in Chicago, IL, bringing its already standing advisory assets of $592 million with it.

IHT Wealth Management aims to become a haven for older advisors, as it will offer succession planning for the handover of their clients and a flexible exit planning.

Joining LPL’s broker-dealer and hybrid RIA custodial platform, IHT will have access to LPL’s practice management and support capabilities as well as technology, compliance and research tools.

The aim of IHT is to provide advisors with a penchant for a wirehouse-style environment to have control over their own books of business in a cost-effective structure whilst maintaining the resources and credibility that a big firm offers.

"We will provide a high level of service free from legacy costs and combined with a capacity for unbiased objectivity that a truly independent platform can offer,” Steve Dudash, president of IHT Wealth Management, said in a statement.

Following on from its initial launch, IHT intends to open two more offices in the metropolitan Chicago area over the next few months.

LPL Financial is in the middle of a growth drive of late; last month it announced plans to open a regional headquarters in North Carolina and is set to appoint 3,000 jobs in the wake of this. It also opened a regional office in San Diego, CA earlier this year.