Bleakley Financial Group, a hybrid registered investment advisor backed by Joe Duran’s Rise Growth Partners, has dropped its broker/dealer affiliation with LPL Financial as it shifts to Purshe Kaplan Sterling Investments and focuses more on advisory business.
Bleakley makes the move after being an office of supervisory jurisdiction of LPL for nearly a decade, though it will keep LPL as a primary custodian.
In a brochure filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on April 15, the RIA said it had changed its arrangement for the outside broker/dealer activities of some LPL representatives to PKS.
Fairfield, N.J.-based Bleakley said in an emailed statement that the move would not change day-to-day operations and reflects a “continued move toward advisory and fee-based services,” with more than half of its advisors no longer having any broker/dealer affiliation.
“As the firm has evolved and become increasingly advisory-focused, it is now moving forward as a standalone, fee-based RIA,” a spokeswoman for Bleakley said in a statement. “As part of this evolution, Bleakley is no longer operating as an OSJ. Advisors requiring broker/dealer affiliation now work directly with PKS, while their advisory relationship with LPL remains unchanged.”
Bleakley said it had a “strong, successful relationship” with LPL and would continue to be one of the RIA’s “top custodial partners.” It also custodies with Schwab, Pershing, Fidelity’s National Financial Services and Goldman Sachs.
A spokesperson for LPL did not return a request for comment by press time.
The move comes a little less than a year after former United Capital CEO Duran’s Rise Growth took a non-controlling stake in the RIA, which is now nearing $12 billion in total assets.
PKS is a subsidiary of Binah Capital Group, the public company created last year with the merger of broker/dealer aggregator Wentworth Management Services and Kingswood’s SPAC. The broker/dealer has some 600 offices and more than 1,600 advisors. Binah recently brought on Ryan Marcus, the former managing director of engagement at MarketCounsel, as chief business and engagement officer.
Since Rise Growth has invested in Bleakley, the RIA has launched an equity program for its over 200 advisors, made two acquisitions, hired a new chief growth officer and will soon announce a rebrand with a fresh name and logo.
Rise Growth announced its second investment in February with a minority, non-controlling interest in Grimes & Company, a $5.7 billion fee-only RIA headquartered in Westborough, Mass.
One of the country’s largest and most acquisitive RIAs will also be disaffiliating from LPL’s brokerage services. Wealth Enhancement, a Minneapolis-based RIA with more than $107 billion in client assets, is splitting from LPL as of June 30, 2025.
Citywire.com first reported in December that Bleakley may be moving its brokerage business from LPL.