Tampa, Florida-based Independent Financial Partners (IFP) announced Tuesday that it recruited two more former Commonwealth Financial Network firms, adding over $400 million in combined client assets to IFP.
The latest additions to IFP from Commonwealth are Van Horn Financial Services, based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and led by Advisor Graham Van Horn, its President; and Severn Financial Advisors, based in Annapolis, Maryland, and led by the father-daughter advisor team of Stephen James, its Founder, and Carly James, its CEO and President.
Van Horn Financial Services officially joined IFP on June 5 and Severn Financial Advisors followed on June 26, Chris Hamm, CEO and President of IFP, told Wealth Solutions Report by email on Thursday.
The two firms will keep their current names, Hamm said.
The additions represent the latest in IFP’s “continued recruiting momentum” following LPL Financial’s acquisition of Commonwealth last year, IFP said.
To date, IFP has added four former Commonwealth advisor teams with 10 advisors combined and about $1.2 billion in total client assets, according to IFP.
The earlier two ex-Commonwealth teams announced by IFP were CenterBridge Planning Group and Sammut Wealth Management, both announced last year.
“We’ve intentionally built IFP to give advisors the freedom to build the business they envision without taking on the burden of running every aspect of an independent firm,” Hamm said in a news release. “The conversations we’re having with advisors today are less about economics and more about partnership.”
Hamm added, “Advisors want flexibility, transparency and a partner that supports their long-term success while allowing them to continue serving clients their way. We believe that’s why we’ve continued to attract advisors looking for a partner that’s invested in their long-term success.”
“What really differentiated IFP was the people,” James said in the news release. “From our first conversations, the team was transparent, accessible and genuinely invested in helping us succeed. We wanted a partner that wasn’t just prepared for where the industry is headed, but excited about it, and that’s exactly what we found at IFP.”
“As we evaluated potential partners, it was important to find a firm that would allow us to maintain ownership of our business while providing the flexibility, resources and support to continue growing,” according to Van Horn.
“IFP’s hybrid model, multi-custodial platform and forward-looking approach gave us confidence that we could preserve what makes our firm unique while gaining the capabilities we need to better serve clients and continue growing for the long run,” he said in the release.
During the past seven years, IFP has grown from about $5 billion to more than $21 billion in assets under advisement and today supports 288 advisors in 37 states, it said.
IFP has added about $2.4 billion in assets so far in 2026, it added.
So far this year, seven new advisory teams have joined IFP in all, excluding advisors who joined existing IFP firms, according to Hamm.
In addition to the two latest ex-Commonwealth firms, the other teams that joined IFP in 2026 so far are: AlphaLogic Wealth Management and Pilot Capital Management on Jan. 2, GreenBridge Wealth Management on Jan. 29, Steele Capital Management on April 15, and Coastal Wealth Innovations on June 10, Hamm told WSR.
“In addition to these new teams, we continue to see strong interest from advisory firms exploring a partnership with IFP, reflecting the momentum we’ve built this year,” he went on to say.
“Our strategy hasn’t changed,” he said. “We’ll continue to grow by speaking with and recruiting high-quality advisory teams whose businesses skew more toward advisory than commission and whose top priority is providing a high level of service and care to their clients. We focus on advisors who want a long-term partner that gives them the right balance of independence alongside plentiful resources and optionality across custodians, technology, and other solutions.”
He concluded, “Our advisors build their businesses on top of our platform while we handle compliance, billing, and other back- and middle-office functions, allowing them to stay focused on serving clients and growing their businesses.”
Jeff Berman, Contributing Editor and Reporter at Wealth Solutions Report, can be reached at jeff.berman@wealthsolutionsreport.com.
