InvestmentNews reported on November 9, 2026, that LPL Financial has added Sound Foundation Wealth Advisors, a team from Cambridge Investment Research Advisors. LPL's own release put the team at about $700 million in advisory, brokerage and retirement plan assets. The item was a roundup that also covered a &Partners recruit and a Janney hire in Scranton, Pennsylvania. This article focuses on the LPL deal. LPL issued its own press release on the same day, saying the team's advisors had joined its broker-dealer and RIA platforms.
LPL's release marks the $700 million figure with a footnote and describes it as a total of client assets rather than strictly assets under management. According to the research notes, the $700 million number was calculated from year-end 2025 account and holding information that was supplied to LPL. The sources do not say how the assets are split among advisory, brokerage and retirement plan accounts.
InvestmentNews reported that Sound Foundation is led by founding advisors Nathan Downs and Cory Thomas, and that the firm has six other wealth advisors and six support staff. The firm is headquartered in Boise, Idaho, and was founded in 2018. The team's clients are mostly technology, healthcare and higher-education professionals, along with business owners. InvestmentNews reported that the team builds a full financial plan, including estate planning, before choosing investments.
The advisors cited LPL's technology investments and systems as the main reason for the move, according to LPL's release as republished by StockTitan. LPL's chief growth officer, Marc Cohen, welcomed the team in the release.
LPL is listed on Nasdaq under the ticker LPLA. LPL's latest company-level numbers, as quoted in the release, put its advisor count above 32,000 and its brokerage and advisory custody at roughly $2.6 trillion. Older LPL figures from a 2025 release conflict with these and are not used here.
Cambridge Investment Research Advisors is headquartered in Fairfield, Iowa, and was founded in 1981. Its parent, Cambridge Investment Group, is privately controlled. InvestmentNews reported in March 2025 that Cambridge faced a $15 million penalty tied to recommendations of conflicted funds, after an SEC complaint about client assets held in mutual funds and money market sweep funds. The sources do not connect that matter to the Sound Foundation team.
The sources do not give a transition timeline or describe how the team's existing clients will be moved to LPL. The announcement is the latest in a run of independent and hybrid platform recruiting that the InvestmentNews roundup said is drawing teams.