Financial advisor Richard “Dick” Donahue, an industry veteran with nearly 57 years of experience, has rejoined LPL Financial’s broker-dealer, RIA, and custodial platforms, the company said.

Based in Ferndale, Wash., Donahue operates under the practice name Asset Advisors LLC. He and his team of client relationship managers Anne Jarvis and Stephanie Tobkin rejoin LPL from Carson Wealth Management (CWM), where they managed about $100 million in client assets.

Donahue got his start in 1966, selling mutual funds and term life insurance door-to-door on evenings and weekends for Frank Russell Co., Inc., while spending his days working in forest management for Washington State. In October, 1984, he founded Asset Advisors LLC and shifted his focus to retirement planning. He is a charter member of Ed Slott’s Elite IRA Advisor Group and specializes in IRA distribution planning, Roth conversions and investment management for retirees.

Donahue spent more than 35 years as an affiliate with the LPL family before LPL Financial was formed from the merger of Linsco and Private Ledger. He said he only left because his former group, Carson Wealth Management (CWM), switched firms from LPL to Cetera. 

“I always had a great relationship with LPL, and now it feels like I’m returning home,” he said in a news release. “LPL is the largest independent wealth management firm ... in my area [and] offers increased investment flexibility, the ability to self-direct portfolios, a broader digital platform and more integrated services. It just feels like the right decision to come back to the firm I spent so much of my career with.” 

Financial Advisor asked Donahue in an email what had changed for the better in the industry, and what still needed to be changed.

“In my 57 years, there have definitely been a lot of changes,” he said. “For example, there was only something like 300 mutual funds (MFs) when I started.”

On June 12, Statista.com reported that in 2022 there were 7,393 mutual funds in the U.S.

“When I started, I used to get a monthly magazine called 'Fund Scope,'” he said. “It gave me the performance numbers on a good share of the funds that existed at that time. It is a lot easier to make and track investment opportunities today.”

Financial Advisor asked Donahue if advancements in technology had made it any easier for advisors to scale their business.

“Advancements in technology are all great for the younger clients, but I just left a meeting with a $2.5 million client, and the personal relationship we have is not based on what he sees at home on his desktop, but the communication we have regarding his objectives,” Donahue said.

Donahue said that many of his clients have been with him since he first opened for business as an advisor. One client started working with him just three months after he opened his advisory practice nearly 40 years ago, he said. Another client, who had been with him since 1969, when Donahue was selling mutual funds door-to-door, drove three hours each way to continue to consult him, including having to take a ferry, he said. Each business relationship is as special to him as it is to his clients, he said.

“They are family,” he said.