Wells Fargo, Commonwealth and the LPL Recruiting Battle: What July's Coverage Shows

AdvizorPro's advisor movement data was featured across several July articles covering the ongoing recruiting battle between Wells Fargo, LPL, Commonwealth Financial Network and Cetera. Here is what the coverage showed.

Wells Fargo Leans on Its Independent Channel

Barron's Advisor and MSN both covered Wells Fargo's recruiting momentum this month, citing AdvizorPro's advisor movement tracking. Sol Gindi, head of Wells Fargo Advisors, told Barron's Advisor that the firm has "been constantly investing in our platform and investing in our capabilities the last number of years really to be attractive to any type of advisor, but particularly to the best in the industry."

A separate, syndicated article in Financial Planning and American Banker went further into the numbers, citing AdvizorPro data showing that just over 1,400 registered representatives have left Wells Fargo's two direct-employee channels, Wells Fargo Advisors and Wells Fargo Clearing Services, to join Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network (FiNet), the firm's independent channel, over the past four years. That kind of movement is consistent with the broader pickup AdvizorPro tracked in its own Advisor Recruiting Hit a 4-Year High in 2025 analysis.

Read the full coverage: Suddenly, Wells Fargo Appears to Be Winning the Recruiting Wars (Barron's) and the MSN republish.

Want to see where advisors are moving between firms like Wells Fargo, LPL and Commonwealth in real time? AdvizorPro's advisor movement data tracks recruiting activity firm by firm, month by month.

Commonwealth's Advisor Exodus Continues

The other side of the story is Commonwealth Financial Network, which LPL acquired last year. AdvizorPro tracked the first twelve months of that fallout in The LPL-Commonwealth Deal One Year Later: 654 Advisor Departures and Where They Went, and the departures have continued since. ThinkAdvisor reported that more than 950 advisors have decided to leave since the deal was announced, citing career advisory firm Muriel Consulting for that figure, with LPL's CEO stating in May that the firm remains on track to meet its goal of retaining 90 percent of Commonwealth's advisor assets.

AdvizorPro's advisor movement data was cited directly in two related stories. Investment News reported that Commonwealth-affiliated Longwave Financial hired a staffer from LPL as part of a Pacific Northwest expansion, noting that the individual is one of several who have moved their registrations from LPL to Commonwealth since LPL's deal to acquire Commonwealth closed. Separately, Barron's covered another Commonwealth-affiliated advisor team's move to Cetera, part of the same broader pattern of advisor movement that AdvizorPro tracks each month in its Advisor Moves reports.

About AdvizorPro

AdvizorPro is the advisor intelligence platform built for asset managers, ETF issuers, wealthtechs, and distribution teams that need to identify, prioritize, and engage financial advisors. With verified data across 750,000+ RIAs, family offices, and broker-dealers, combined with AI-powered lead scoring, TrafficIQ visitor intelligence, native CRM integrations, and now direct connectivity to Claude and ChatGPT, AdvizorPro powers the go-to-market strategies of leading firms across the wealth management ecosystem.