Ameriprise's Orchard Financial Group Moves to Wells Fargo FiNet in Los Angeles

Orchard Financial Group, a Los Angeles practice that Ameriprise Financial had marketed as one of its private wealth advisory teams, has moved to Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network, the bank's independent-contractor broker-dealer known as FiNet. FINRA BrokerCheck records show six members of the group registering with FiNet, and with Wells Fargo Advisors as investment adviser representatives, on Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026, all at the Center Drive West office address that Ameriprise had listed for the team.

The new registrations cover Anthony A. Perez (CRD 4653336), Eric J. Smutko (CRD 4665221), Michael M. Kawase (CRD 4714955), Audrey L. Schmedes (CRD 6824009), Kristina D. Liuag (CRD 6326463) and Devin Marshall (CRD 6897747). As of Thursday, all six still showed Ameriprise registrations next to the Wells Fargo entries. A departing firm has up to 30 days to file the termination notice that closes out an adviser's record.

Most of the group has spent its entire career inside the Ameriprise system. Perez's BrokerCheck file opens in June 2003 with a broker registration at Ameriprise Financial Services and a parallel one at IDS Life Insurance Co. of Minneapolis that lapsed in July 2006. Smutko's record begins in August 2003 and shows a gap of several months in 2008 before he re-registered with Ameriprise that November. Kawase first registered in February 2004. Liuag has been with Ameriprise since November 2014 and Marshall since December 2020.

Schmedes took a different route. She was registered with Merrill Lynch in Pasadena from August 2017 until March 2020, according to BrokerCheck, and moved her registration to Ameriprise in Los Angeles on March 16, 2020. Of the six records, only Smutko's carries a disclosure: a 2019 client complaint, marked denied, over two RiverSource variable annuities he recommended in 2016.

How much money is moving is harder to pin down. Neither Wells Fargo nor the advisors had published an asset figure that WirehouseHUB could confirm as of Thursday, and FiNet's online list of new affiliations had not yet added the team. The most recent public number comes from Forbes, whose Best-in-State profile of Perez lists $494 million in custodied team assets as of June 2025.

For Wells Fargo, the Los Angeles team extends a busy year for the independent channel. In a release marking FiNet's 25th anniversary, the bank said FiNet's recruits from the first two months of 2026 brought close to $5.5 billion of client money. FiNet has since added Touchstone Wealth Partners, a former UBS practice in Toledo, Ohio, with $2.1 billion, which WealthManagement.com dated to April. In July, a seven-person Truist team responsible for more than $1 billion signed on with Merritt Point Wealth Advisors, an existing FiNet practice, in Palm Beach, Fla. And on Sept. 30, WealthManagement.com reported that the Cullman/Holt Group, a $1.3 billion UBS team in Upper Arlington, Ohio, was moving to Ascend Advisory Group, a FiNet practice based in Dublin, Ohio.

On the Ameriprise side, the Orchard exit adds to a string of 2026 departures from the firm's advisor network. In September, WealthManagement.com reported that Fathom Advisors, a Bloomington, Minn., team it put at about $1.3 billion based on Forbes rankings, had left to form its own RIA with Schwab as custodian. Recruiting consultancy The Gershman Group wrote the same month that Rise Private Wealth Management of Bedford, N.H., had gone independent as an RIA, with Schwab holding client assets and Dynasty Financial Partners providing back-office support. Gershman estimated the two teams' reported assets at about $5.6 billion between them. FiNet has been a landing spot as well. Financial Planning reported in January that Houser, Plessl & Staples Wealth Management Group, which oversaw $530 million while at Ameriprise, joined FiNet in Allentown, Pa. In August, InvestmentNews reported that Gabriel Armancas left Ameriprise to open Turquoise Private Wealth on FiNet in Woodland Hills, Calif., with about $140 million.

Wells Fargo is also building a second route for independents. WealthManagement.com reported in January that Wells Fargo plans to launch a redesigned fee-only RIA custody platform, moving a handful of existing FiNet practices onto it by the end of 2026 and opening it to outside firms in 2027. Erik Karanik, head of independent solutions for Wells Fargo's wealth and investment management unit, told the publication the bank wanted to test the technology with its own advisors first. In July, WealthManagement.com reported that Karanik's team was meeting with RIAs to gather feedback on the design before the external launch.

BrokerCheck does not show how many client accounts have followed the advisors, and neither firm had issued a public statement on the move that WirehouseHUB could locate as of Thursday, Oct. 8.