He will will lead Kingswood's UK growth plans and report to Gary Wilder, group CEO to the board of Kingswood Holdings.
Expanding Kingswood has acquired a number of adviser businesses in the UK and US over the past few years with backing from private equity firm Pollen Street Capital.
Recently it merged its US advisory firms into a new brand, Kingswood US. It also acquired Surrey Chartered Financial Planner firm Regency Investment Services.
Mr Lawrence had 30 years' experience in financial services with Lloyds Banking Group, holding senior leadership roles in distribution and other areas in its retail, commercial and insurance divisions.
In 2014, he became the commercial director and then COO for Lloyds' Private Banking and Wealth businesses with responsibility for its mass affluent proposition and strategy.
In the past two years he has worked on launching and establishing Schroders Personal Wealth (a Financial Planning joint venture between Lloyds Banking Group and Schroders).
Gary Wilder, group CEO at Kingswood, said: "I am delighted that David has agreed to join Kingswood as our UK CEO to drive us through our next exciting phase of growth. As the business continues to expand, we want to ensure we have an experienced industry leader in place to accelerate our growth plans, including our best in class DFM proposition, and to drive synergies and efficiencies from our integration efforts. In David we believe we have that person.”
Mr Lawrence said: "Kingswood has a clear ambition to build a leading wealth management business in the UK and internationally and I am delighted to be joining the business at such an exciting time. The UK business has a healthy pipeline of acquisition opportunities and my early focus will be on converting these, integrating them and delivering accelerated organic growth through our regional hubs.
In other executive changes, Patrick Goulding, who worked in the development of Kingswood over the last two years as platform CEO and group CFO, will from January focus his efforts full time on the group chief financial officer role. He will continue as a director of Kingswood's UK subsidiaries. Graydon Butler will also be leaving the board of Kingswood Holdings on 1 January.
Buzz West, group chairman said: "Patrick has been an integral leader of our business over the last two years as we built a foundation for growth and the board is pleased he has agreed to assume the group chief financial officer on a full time basis as we continue to expand. I would also like to thank Graydon for his service to the Company. I am delighted to welcome David to Kingswood and look forward to the next exciting phase of our development."