Charles Stephen & Co., a financial planning firm based in Albuquerque, N.M., has joined the Advisor Group, partnering with a super-OSJ of the broker-dealer’s SagePoint Financial subsidiary.
Charles Stephen will join the office of supervisory jurisdiction, or OSJ, called AmeriFlex Financial Services, based in Santa Barbara, Calif.
The companies made the announcement Wednesday.
According to BrokerCheck, Charles Stephen was formerly with Kestra Advisory Services. It is led by partners Adam Ciepiela and Kelly Famiglietta. The team also includes co-founder Steve Ciepiela and Jonathan Stoner. It managed $583 million in client assets.
The practice specializes in multigenerational financial planning, retirement planning, portfolio management, business succession planning, education planning and tax planning.
In a news release announcing the partnership, Adam Ciepiela indicated that as his firm’s clientele had grown, so had their financial service needs.
“In this competitive landscape, we knew the right path forward for our firm and clients was to partner with AmeriFlex, SagePoint and Advisor Group,” he said. “At each level, we have found enthusiastic experts ready to help us grow our business and serve our clients to the best of our ability.”
According to Famiglietta, government red tape had created the need for new partners able to untangle it so the firm could operate smoothly.
“Joining SagePoint and working with AmeriFlex provides our firm access to best-in-class shared resources, business services and technology while streamlining our regulatory compliance programs, enabling our financial professionals to focus on our clients’ needs,” she said in the news release.
Desireé Sii, president and CEO of SagePoint Financial, recruited the Charles Stephen team. In the news release, she indicated that the partnership was mutually beneficial to all.
"More than ever, financial professionals look to leverage the resources, scale and expertise of well-run, well-resourced wealth management firms to support their businesses,” she said. “The experts at SagePoint and Advisor Group are ready to work with the financial professionals of Charles Stephen to help them reach their business goals.”
Advisor Group, headquartered in Phoenix, is an independent broker-dealer comprising SagePoint Financial, FSC Securities, Royal Alliance Associates, Securities America, Triad Advisors and Woodbury Financial Services. It serves approximately 11,100 financial professionals overseeing more than $450 billion in client assets.