Cetera snags $37B as 90% of Voya advisors move; Ameriprise gets $800M credit-union advisor team; $873M Stewardship Financial Advisors joins Captrust; and other news

June 11, 2021 5:59 PM

Who's moving where: Raymond James, LPL Financial, Cetera, Onramp Invest, Advisor Group, J.P. Morgan Wealth Management, Dynasty Financial Partners, Ameriprise, FS Investments, plus news about ESG, enforcement and philanthropy. Here's what you missed this week in wealth management. Scroll through to see quick takes.

After 37 years with Advisor Group’s Securities America, veteran executive Janine Wertheim will retire at the end of next month. Most recently, she led the firm’s main corporate RIA, Securities America Advisors, as its president, but she has served in a variety of leadership roles with the Omaha, Nebraska-area wealth manager during her tenure. “I am proud to have helped build one of the largest and most visible firms in the independent wealth management industry,” Wertheim said in a statement. “It has been my privilege to take this incredible professional journey in partnership with the amazing people at our home office and the thousands of independent financial professionals who count on us to support their business success and drive an exceptional service experience for their clients.”

Northwestern Mutual appointed Jennifer Brase, a veteran of more than 30 years with the firm, to lead its Omaha, Nebraska-based office as its managing partner. Her prior roles include managing partner of the firm’s Kansas City office, chief development officers of its Indianapolis office and vice president of diversity and inclusion at Northwestern’s Milwaukee headquarters. "I'm looking forward to the opportunities my new role will provide me to work alongside our financial advisor teams and provide our clients with industry-leading products and exceptional experiences, as well as advocate for advancement opportunities that make it possible for women and other diverse advisors to join, stay and grow within our firm," Brase said in a statement.

Mindy Diamond.

Invest in Others, which has raised more than $3 million for 300 charities in the past 15 years, hired four new board members from across the wealth management industry: Franklin Templeton Co-head of U.S. Retail Sales Ronice Barlow, Diamond Consultants CEO Mindy Diamond, Ameriprise Executive Vice President Bill Williams and T. Rowe Price Head of Institutional Consulting and Private Wealth Barrett Wragg. The charities receiving donations from financial advisors and other wealth management professionals through the foundation include those in the fields of health, education, arts, hunger, poverty prevention and veterans aid.

A month after the close of LPL Financial’s $300-million acquisition of midsize rival firm Waddell & Reed, the buyer tapped the former president of the seller’s wealth manager, Shawn Mihal, to be its executive vice president of institution services. In the new role, Mihal reports to Chief Customer Care Officer Dayton Semerjian. He’s replacing Arthur Osman, who plans to step down on July 1. Osman had spent two dozen years with LPL and Uvest Financial Services Group, a firm it acquired in 2007. “Shawn and I’ve been collaborating closely to prepare for this transition and will continue to partner over the next few weeks to help ensure a smooth transition and experience for everyone,” Osman said in a statement posted to twitter.

Family and foundations office Hirtle Callaghan tapped seven advisors and employees for new offices in Minneapolis and Scottsdale, Arizona. Director Denise McClain will lead the Scottsdale office alongside vice presidents Rick Rentschler and Ben Park. In Minneapolis, directors John Fabie and Kyle Jorgensen, Vice President Dan Miller and Associate Conrad Adam comprise the firm’s new team. Hirtle Callaghan manages $17 billion in client assets.

Atlanta-based Stewardship Financial Advisors is joining Captrust after the RIA consolidator acquired the practice launched in 1997 by Charles B. Pyke. The practice includes 10 advisors and employees and two other offices in Georgia, and it manages $873 million on behalf of almost 1,000 clients. With the deal, the practice is dropping its broker-dealer of the past 10 years, Cetera Advisors.

Michael Nagle/Bloomberg News

J.P. Morgan Wealth Management and the United Negro College Fund are teaming up to provide 75 scholarships per year to students at 11 Historically Black Colleges and Universities through 2025. The students earning the scholarship will participate in the firm’s Advancing Black Pathways Fellowship and a new internship through the J.P. Morgan Wealth Management Service Center. After completing the internship, the students will be eligible for another scholarship applicable to their senior year. Applications are open and due June 24. “We look forward to unlocking an enormous talent potential while boosting interest in a career as a financial advisor, which has excellent growth potential,” Head of Diverse Advisor Experience Christopher Thompson said in a statement.

Ameriprise scored a notable win in the bank and credit union channel, with a commitment from Live Oak, Texas-based Randolph-Brooks Federal Credit Union and its team of 14 advisors managing $800 million in brokerage assets. The credit union’s investment program plans to complete the transition to the Ameriprise Financial Institutions unit from its current third-party marketer, CUNA Mutual Group, by the end of the year. “As the financial industry advances and client expectations change, we know that technology is an essential aspect of this evolution,” RBFCU Senior Vice President Edward Bronnenberg said in a statement. “Our members have come to expect multiple delivery channels for the essential services they utilize, and the fact that Ameriprise provides leading technology to meet this need drove our decision to work together.”

Fintech firm Seeds has named a 10-member advisory board headlined by the actor Adrian Grenier and including a team of ESG, investing, technology and legal experts. The firm works with financial advisors to provide customized portfolios meeting ESG criteria. “Creating wealth shouldn’t be at the expense of what we believe in as global citizens, and these days it really doesn’t have to,” Grenier said in a statement.

Procyon Partners, an RIA using the Dynasty Financial Partners platform, added a new financial advisor to its team of 25 employees in five offices. Advisor Daniel Limmer, formerly of American Portfolios Financial Services, opened Procyon’s new office in West Palm Beach, Florida. His practice managed $70 million in client assets with its former firm.

Asset manager FS Investments is providing a “significant” sponsorship of an undisclosed amount to the Money Management Institute’s Gateway Foundation, enabling the nonprofit to expand its financial literacy programs across the country. “Their longstanding efforts to promote financial literacy and to establish and support such programming distinguishes their leadership,” Money Management Institute CEO Craig Pfeiffer said in a statement. “Such support is critical to ongoing progress and we look forward to deepening our impact upon financial literacy through the help of FS Investments.”

Financial advisors Mike Fuller and Rob Barber left Raymond James Financial Services for LPL Financial and a hybrid RIA enterprise called Perennial Financial Services. The Arroyo Grande, California-based team managed $155 million in client assets with their prior firm.

The 2021 Allianz Life Sustainable Investing Study brings the latest evidence that clients are interested in incorporating ESG data into their portfolios: 64% of Americans have a positive view of sustainable investing and 68% agree with the view that reallocating investments away from companies that don’t adhere to sustainability principles towards ones that do is a good way of punishing and rewarding the behavior. In addition, the survey respondents who are already investing say they have placed 46% of their holdings in companies that are abiding by sustainable principles. “Financial services and insurance companies are in a unique position and can play a critical role in the adoption of sustainable investing principles,” Allianz Life CIO Todd Hedtke said in a statement. “Sustainable investing has moved from being an aspiration to an expectation.”

Moneta Group Investment Advisors hired its first female CIO, Aoifinn Devitt, at the RIA with more than $27 billion in AUM. Previously in her more than two decades in the financial services, Devitt served as CIO of the Policemen’s Annuity and Benefit Fund of Chicago and head of investment for Ireland at Hermes Fund Managers of Ireland. “Aoifinn’s impressive skill set and extensive experience across asset classes and management structures make her the perfect fit for the CIO role,” Keith Bowles, COO of Moneta, said in a statement.

At least 811 registered representatives managing $37 billion in assets under administration moved to Cetera Advisor Networks after private equity-backed Cetera Financial Group closed on the acquisition of certain assets of Voya Financial Advisors. The Genstar Capital-owned acquirer retained 90% of Voya’s financial advisors and 93% of its AUA after the deal for an undisclosed price tag.

Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Barred former LPL Financial advisor Paul R. McGonigle, 65, was charged June 9 in Boston federal court with three counts of wire fraud, one count of mail fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. He bilked clients by making unauthorized withdrawals from annuities and recommending fake investment funds, then using their money for his own personal and business expenses, according to federal prosecutors. He also impersonated his clients in calls with annuity firms and forged their signature to carry out the scheme, investigators allege.

Ex-Northwestern Mutual financial advisors John Patterson, Steve Owings, Joe Patterson and McKee Nunnally joined Bleakley Financial Group, a large enterprise within LPL Financial’s biggest hybrid RIA, Private Advisor Group. The team managed $420 million in client assets with their prior firm, and they launched Bleakley’s first Atlanta office.

Advisor Group’s SagePoint Financial unveiled five new practices joining its firm that collectively managed more than $330 million in client assets with their prior ones: Woburn, Massachusetts-based Tartarini Financial Services ($90 million); Corvallis, Oregon-based Bridges Wealth Management ($83 million); Lynnfield, Massachusetts-based Legacy Financial Advisors ($78 million); Phoenix-based Granite Vista Financial ($48 million) and Huntington Beach, California-based Perfected Wealth Management ($32 million).

Tyrone Ross, financial consultant and start-up advisor

Onramp Invest, the cryptocurrency-for-advisors startup that launched in May, is joining Visa’s Fintech Fast Track program. The goal of the program is to speed up integration of Onramp with Visa’s vast payments network, giving the startup access to the credit card company’s reach, capabilities and security. With access to Visa’s technology, resources and partners, Onramp CEO Tyrone Ross is hoping to quickly expand his company’s footprint in both financial services and technology.

Advisors Chris Vidler and Eric Van Der Hyde moved their firm, Concentric Wealth Partners, of Glen Allen, Virginia, to Raymond James Financial Services from Northwestern Mutual. The team manages nearly $150 million in client assets. Their financial planning and wealth management firm caters to families, medical professionals, business owners and non-profits.