Independent advisors Brian Wall and Joe Nastasi have joined LPL Financial’s broker-dealer, corporate registered investment advisor and custodian platforms as a merged practice managing approximately $315 million in brokerage and advisory assets, the company announced yesterday in a news release.

The duo, formerly with the Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network, are longtime friends who met years ago at A.G. Edwards & Sons, Inc., a regional firm where both advisors worked from 1994-2008, according to information posted on Broker Check.

Wall is an industry veteran, whose career as an advisor spans 44 years, 14 of them as a producing branch manager before going independent in 2012.

Nastasi, the son of Italian immigrants, is an American success story of hard work and determination. As a youth, Nastasi worked at a grocery store to save money for college. After graduating high school with a full scholarship, he decided to invest his college savings, a hobby he pursued for years, even after graduating summa cum laude from the University of Missouri-Rolla and landing a job at IBM as an account executive. Passion became purpose, and Nastasi eventually decided to turn his hobby into his “dream job” as a financial advisor, leveraging his knowledge and experience to the benefit of clients seeking to achieve their financial goals and aspirations.

“Investments can be the equalizer or stepping stone to go from humble beginnings to where I am now, living the American dream,” Nastasi said in the news release.

With the move to LPL, the advisors will merge their independent offices - Wall in Overland Park, Kan., and Nastasi in Lees Summit, Mo. - as part of a succession plan. “It was important to come together as a team for business continuity reasons and to ensure our clients are fully supported for years to come,” Wall said in the news release.

The advisors said that the advantages LPL’s technology offered over those of Wells Fargo was another reason the two chose to switch broker-dealers. 

“LPL has embraced technology in every aspect of an advisor’s practice,” Nastasi said in the news release. “The fact that I can send something to my client that they can sign electronically is huge. I’ve never had that before.”

Rich Steinmeier, LPL Financial managing director and divisional president, business development, indicated in the news release that his firm could help affiliating advisors in other ways, too. “As a partner with scale, we will continue to look for ways to drive down costs and bring value to LPL advisors’ businesses,” he said in the news release.

LPL Financial, headquartered in Ft. Mill, S.C., San Diego and Boston, is the nation’s largest independent broker-dealer.