Total Independence with Total Support

Preserving a Clients-First Legacy

For more than 20 years, financial advisor Mike Ashworth’s passion for helping clients and serving his community has been deeply personal. He and his team at Ashworth Financial Group in Asheville, North Carolina, built a legacy of trust by emphasizing integrity, offering easy-to-understand financial education, and keeping their clients’ best interests at the heart of their business model.

Ultimately, that legacy is what prompted them to consider leaving the wirehouse and going independent. They recognized that to keep serving clients their way, they needed fewer restrictions and more freedom, flexibility, and control. But they also needed a solution that enabled them to prioritize time with clients over the operational and administrative tasks associated with running a financial practice. 

More Control. Less Headaches.

That’s when they found the best of both worlds — LPL Financial’s supported independence model, Strategic Wealth. Ideally suited for advisors like Mike who want to break away from a wirehouse, Strategic Wealth provides comprehensive business support through specialists who work as an extension of an advisor’s staff. Mike and his team would be fully independent, while also enjoying a fully supported experience from their initial start-up and transition to ongoing strategy and operational, administrative, and tech support.

“It felt like the time was right for me to do something different for my clients,” said Mike.

What intrigued him most was the relational aspect of being a Strategic Wealth advisor. “It’s good having a CFO to help control the day-to-day things that I would have to deal with otherwise as a business owner,” Mike said.

Surpassing Expectations

Throughout the transition to LPL, Mike and his team were impressed with the level of dedication. They were able to leave all the intricacies to LPL to handle so that they could focus on their highest priority: taking care of their clients, which was even more crucial during the transition.

LPL Financial’s expertise and advanced digital technology also helped make client transitioning a much faster and smoother process. “The people at LPL have bent over backwards,” Mike said. “They all went above and beyond to make this a good transition for us, and I’ll never forget that.”

Mike and his team were also delighted with LPL’s marketing services. Prior to their move, they weren’t able to engage in a lot of marketing. Now they’re taking advantage of LPL’s ongoing resources to build their practice.

“Being able to use social media and marketing that I haven’t been able to do in the past — I’m very excited about that,” Mike said. “And the things the marketing team has done for us are wonderful, like logo creation and setting up a website. I can’t wait to explore more marketing opportunities going forward.”