Sierra Ridge Advisor Group Joins Cetera From LPL
A large office of supervisory jurisdiction (OSJ) in California has left LPL Financial after 13 months with the broker/dealer to join Cetera Networks, a community within Cetera Wealth Services, the firm’s large OSJ channel.
Sierra Ridge Advisor Group, a Roseville, Calif.-based OSJ with about $2.1 billion in assets under administration and 40 advisors, made the move to fuel a national expansion, with plans to launch its own registered investment advisor on Cetera’s Blueprint platform.
Sierra Ridge, which was founded in 2018 by James Slaughter and Giancarlo Foti, joined LPL last year with the firm’s acquisition of Atria Wealth Solutions.
“We made a change because we believe that Cetera is the partner that will help us to continue to grow and provide open architecture for our advisors without limiting us, while positioning us for continued success,” Foti said in a statement. “As we searched for a new broker/dealer, GrowthLine really stood out to us because that overall growth platform complements marketing services we offer our advisors. What also struck us during due diligence was the involvement of Cetera’s executive team – they made clear they intend to be a genuine partner to us as a large enterprise focused on building a national footprint. That kind of access and a platform that doesn’t limit how we serve advisors is exactly what we were looking for.”
GrowthLine is Cetera’s proprietary advisor growth engine, which provides a customized and integrated growth plan.
Sierra Ridge has aggressive growth plans, which they felt their former broker/dealer couldn’t support. The firm has plans to expand in the Midwest and on the East Coast, recruit more advisor teams and launch its own RIA on the Blueprint platform. But the firm still plans to maintain a brokerage affiliation and operate under a hybrid model.
Cetera’s Blueprint is an RIA platform of “resources, technologies and services from which they can execute their growth plan,” a spokesperson said. The platform is multi-custodial and provides a modular middle-office infrastructure.
“While other broker/dealers are leaning away from supporting OSJs, Cetera is clearly leaning in with more investments to support the OSJ business model, so we know we’re important to Cetera and its executive team,” Slaughter said in a statement. “Partnering with Cetera gives us the resources and the runway to bring the Sierra Ridge approach to advisors nationally, and we’re just getting started.”
This follows news earlier this month that Cetera added iTP Partners and its registered investment adviser Blue Horizon Equity to Blueprint, bringing about $3.5 billion in AUA and almost 50 advisors to Cetera from Osaic.
The broker/dealer also has RIA options, Cetera Investors, a network of 40 branch offices, and Cetera Planning Partners, a wholly-owned employee-advisor option. Cetera Planning Partners was formed earlier this year with the combination of Avantax Planning Partners and The Retirement Planning Group, two RIAs that the firm acquired in 2023.
As of June 30, 2026, all Cetera firms manage about $688 billion in assets under administration and $330 billion in assets under management. The broker/dealer is owned by private equity firm Genstar Capital, which acquired Cetera in 2018 and reinvested in the firm in 2023.
