Commonwealth, AllianceBernstein, LPL, Stifel: Who's moving and what's happening this week

June 26, 2021 12:04 AM

Advisors join Stifel, LPL, Raymond James, Snowden Lane, and other firms; LPL takes another step toward integrating M&T Bank's wealth management arm; and the biggest independent broker-dealer brings billions of dollars into its new model "sleeves." Scroll through for more quicktakes from the week in financial advice.

The customized investment model “sleeves” offered by LPL Financial within the firm’s centrally managed Model Wealth Portfolios have amassed several billions of dollars, in a signal that the No. 1 independent broker-dealer is adding more assets from its nearly 18,000 advisors. The firm launched the newest proprietary service, Firm Sleeve, at the beginning of the year, and advisors have placed more than $3.4 billion in the models. Another one launched in April 2019, Advisor Sleeve, has topped $5 billion in assets. “Firm Sleeve is rapidly transforming the way that large firms, RIAs and institutions work,” Rob Pettman, LPL’s executive vice president of Wealth Management Solutions, said in a statement. “The solution’s growth represents a significant milestone in our efforts to elevate client services and is indicative of our success in streamlining money management practices to make it easier for our advisors to operate their practices.”

Nationwide and AllianceBernstein are adding to the number of options for large retirement plan participants in adapting the asset manager’s Lifetime Income Strategy to 401(k) sponsors working with Nationwide. Following passage of the bipartisan Secure Act of 2019, the companies are offering the option of an income feature that will automatically transfer a participants’ savings to an annuity product at the age of 50 in order to build up protected lifetime income. ““The expansion of Lifetime Income Strategy is an extension of an already highly successful relationship Nationwide has with AB and will serve as an important addition to our suite of in-plan guarantees designed to address America’s growing retirement income needs across all plan types and sizes,” Eric Stevenson, president of Nationwide Retirement Solutions, said in a statement.

Lincoln Financial Group’s collaboration with Morningstar Investment Management on advisor-managed accounts now has expanded options within employer-sponsored retirement plans. The wealth manager and the asset management arm of the giant research firm offer the service to Lincoln’s advisors as well as those with certain other firms in Morningstar Investment Management’s network of RIAs, such as SageView Advisory Group, Captrust, OneDigital and Hub International. As of this month, the firm enables advisor-managed accounts as part of a more flexible Qualified Default Investment Alternative strategy.
Additionally, Lincoln promoted Chief Talent Officer Jen Warne to chief people officer in charge of all human resources operations.

Turnkey fee-only insurance network DPL Financial Partners tapped former Principal Financial Group Head of Global Firm Relations Tom Smith to be its chief growth officer. In the role, Smith will aim to expand the firm’s reach among insurers, distributors and RIAs. “With over three decades of experience helping to evolve and blend retirement planning, asset management and insurance, Tom’s experience will help us continue, and even accelerate, our ability to help RIAs to expand their practices beyond asset management,” DPL CEO David Lau said in a statement.

Ex-Merrill Lynch advisors Eric Lalime and Patricia Lucas went independent from the wirehouse with Pallas Capital Advisors, opening the RIA’s third office with a new location in Park Ridge, New Jersey. The team managed $300 million in client assets with their prior firm. As part of the move, the representatives affiliated with Purshe Kaplan Sterling Investments as their broker-dealer and chose Fidelity Institutional as their custodian. “After very careful consideration and research, it’s clear that Pallas Capital will allow my team the opportunity to significantly enhance our current practice,” Lalime said in a statement. “I believe that the firm’s high-touch, client-focused model will allow my team to best serve our clients moving forward.”

Private equity-backed LPL hybrid RIA Stratos Wealth Holdings’ Stratos Wealth Enterprises acquired a non-voting, minority stake in Summit Wealth Partners, an RIA with offices in Naples, Florida, and Grand Rapids, Michigan, and $600 million in assets under management. Co-CEOs Jason Print and Chad Warrick, as well as the RIA’s four other advisors and a dozen other employees, are remaining in their roles after the deal and Summit is retaining the same brand. “Numerous RIAs and aggregators have knocked on our door to propose joining forces,” Print said in a statement. “We chose to partner with Stratos because the team there structured a deal that gives Chad and me the freedom and flexibility to run our business in the way we choose while leveraging Stratos’ significant scale, resources, and expertise.”

Stifel enticed away a Wells Fargo complex manager to help further its mission of aggressively recruiting new advisers, particularly from wirehouses.

Ex-Wells Fargo Advisors brokers Pam Shulack-Smith and Marc Parson left the wirehouse for Stifel Financial in Festus, Missouri. The two advisors managed a combined $157 million in their respective practices with their prior firm. “We are excited to be reunited with former colleagues Pam Shulack-Smith and Marc Parson, with whom we have a long working and personal relationship,” Branch Manager Rita Mahn said in a statement. “Pam and Marc are held in high regard for the relationships they have built with their clients while guiding them toward their financial goals.”
Additionally, Stifel launched a new branch in Brentwood, Tennessee, under former Merrill Lynch financial advisors Bill Wade and Reid Berry. The duo managed $211 million in client assets with their prior firm, and Wade is branch manager of Stifel’s second office in the Nashville area. “We were very impressed with the breadth of resources we and our clients would be able to access, as well as the culture,” Wade said of their new employer.

Five months after launching a new wirehouse breakaway channel, Commonwealth Financial Network announced that advisor Keith Ryan of Melville, New York-based Anlon Financial Strategies is the first one to join the firm’s Access Advisor Program. Ryan managed $140 million in AUM with his prior firm, UBS, after nearly four decades in the industry. “I wanted to work within a strong community and with a team where we’re all pulling together in the same direction,” Ryan said in a statement. “A big reason for choosing Commonwealth was the attention the firm paid during its due diligence process. Speaking and meeting with the Commonwealth team reassured me of the kind of support I’ll get as an advisor.”

Midsize independent broker-dealer Grove Point Financial hired ex-Wells Fargo data governance lead and technology relationship manager Shirley Lenus as the firm’s head of technology. In addition to overseeing the Rockville, Maryland-based firm’s tech, she’ll also be focused in the newly created role on forging deeper connections with the wealth manager’s parent, private equity-backed Kestra Holdings. “Having worked in IT management for a diverse collection of firms, [Lenus] brings broad expertise in development strategies and data governance policy,” Grove Point COO Rob Costello said in a statement. “Shirley is also an experienced leader and has the ability to engage business partners in a way that will yield an immediate, positive impact on our solution delivery.”

For its director of business development, LPL hybrid RIA Goss Advisors hired former Fidelity Investments recruiter David Symecko. Returning to his prior firm of 16 years that he had left for Fidelity in 2018, Symecko will lead the 110-advisor office of supervisory jurisdiction’s recruiting. The New Orleans-based hybrid RIA-OSJ has more than $9 billion in assets under advisement. “David has a proven understanding of the independent advisory space and a track record of building lasting relationships with advisors,” Goss Advisors co-founder Alex Goss said in a statement. “In fact, David first recruited my firm to leave the wirehouse and start an RIA back in 2011.”

As part of its annual sustainability report, insurer MetLife pledged to spend $500 million in social and environmental investments by 2030. While its operations have been carbon neutral since 2016, the firm committed to 11 new goals by the end of the decade including further reductions in emissions and originating $20 billion in sustainable investments. The company’s foundation also pledged $5 million over three years to “promote Black educational and career opportunities, Black business ownership, and racial justice initiatives.” In addition, MetLife is working to increase representation of women in its workforce: Currently, 52% of the firm’s employees are women, as well as 33% of its board, 30% of executives and 42% of managers.

Independent RIA and broker-dealer Snowden Lane Partners added financial advisor Tony Esses to launch its Coral Gables, Florida-based office. He joins from Wells Fargo Advisors, where his practice managed $800 million in client assets after his more than 35 years in the industry. Snowden Lane has grown to 64 advisors in a dozen offices around the country since its founding a decade ago. “Snowden Lane’s built an environment that’s removed all obstacles to growth, and their fast rise within the RIA space is a reflection of the strong and unique culture they’ve established,” Esses said in a statement.

The FPA hired its first-ever chief membership experience officer, tapping former Association for Corporate Growth executive Leslie Whittet for the role. In the position, Whittet will manage the organization’s membership strategy and growth goals. She’ll be relocating to Denver to operate from the FPA’s headquarters. “FPA has seen its fair share of challenges when it comes to membership experience, engagement, recruitment, and retention — all challenges we are addressing head-on in the months ahead,” FPA CEO Patrick Mahoney says. “Leslie’s leadership and experience in this area will be of direct benefit to FPA, our members, and our chapters.”

Financial advisor Andrew Farah of Green Bay, Wisconsin-based AFI Wealth Strategies has sold the practice to RIA consolidator Mercer Advisors. Since 1995, Farah has been affiliated with Raymond James Financial Services, where he has $240 million in assets under management. The private equity-backed RIA acquirer has 559 employees in more than 45 locations with $31 billion in client assets. I built a successful and growing practice but had reached the limits of my capacity,” Farah said in a statement. “To continue to add clients and grow I had to reinvent my business. To use industry language, I had to build it or join it.”

Steward Partners announced last week that Goldman Sachs will provide clearing and custody services to the RIA later this year. Goldman will also onboard Steward’s assets acquired in the Umpqua acquisition. Steward also recently announced the launch of its broker-dealer Steward Partners Investment Solutions, which offers a multi-custodial model. “Steward Partners will be Goldman Sachs' first strategic institutional client in its new custody business,” according to a statement.

Raymond James and Associates added a four-person team from Merrill Lynch that previously managed $842 million in client assets. Advisors Steven G. Williams, Kevin Townsend, Steven R. Williams and Pamela Fisher were joined by practice business manager Kim Smith and senior client service associates Barbara Hillman and Anne Beck. Williams and Townsend Wealth Management Partners of Raymond James are based in the Salt Lake City, Utah, office led by manager Pam McComas.

After the 2019 Secure Act created pooled employer plans, a 401(k) vehicle enabling participants from different companies to join the same plan, financial services giants Principal Financial Group and Lockton Investment Advisors collaborated on a PEP called the (k)Praetorian Retirement Plan. With the Lockton arm serving as the 3(38) fiduciary and Principal acting as pooled plan provider, the strategic partnership has lined up “dozens” of employers with between $10 million and $300 million in assets under management that have either “adopted the plan or are looking to do so,” according to the firms. “We founded our administrative outsourcing practice to help clients manage the rapid retirement industry changes brought on by legislative and COVID impacts,” Mike Duckett, Lockton’s director of outsourced administrative responsibilities, said in a statement. “We’re thrilled to have so quickly delivered these new client solutions, especially in a marketplace that still struggles to understand the new status quo.”

RIA operations consulting firm PFI Advisors has launched a new education and training service called The COO Society, offering advisors three courses in technology, human resources and business administration and one-on-one coaching from founder Matt Sonnen. The digital classes include interviews with familiar industry figures such as Mark Tibergien, Julie Littlechild and Kelli Cruz. "One of the primary goals of The COO Society is to help independent RIAs benefit from the massive value that dedicated operations professionals bring to their firms' growth initiatives," Sonnen said in a statement. "By breaking down our expertise into digestible pieces that members can consume on their own schedule, we hope to provide RIAs of all sizes with the skills needed to effectively run their business and drive growth in a profitable fashion."

Completing what is likely going to be the largest move in the independent broker-dealer channel by far in 2020, LPL Financial migrated the assets and advisors of M&T Bank’s wealth management arm to its BD, RIA and custodial services. At $22 billion in client assets and 210 registered representatives moving into LPL’s Institution Services platform, M&T Bank’s retail brokerage and advisory unit surpasses even the massive group of 170 reps and $20 billion first announced by LPL last year. The firms moved $8 billion in brokerage assets and $3 billion in advisory AUM on June 12, with plans to onboard the remaining $8 billion during the next several months. “This agreement represents a significant milestone for M&T Bank in its mission to bridge the key gaps in consumers’ financial planning and help fulfill their important life goals,” Matt McAfee, the firm’s head of affluent markets, said in a statement. “We are excited to be working with LPL and to leverage its economies of scale and innovative technology, which is an essential component of our customized brokerage, advisory and insurance solutions.”

A Philadelphia-area practice called Retirement Planning Specialists is dropping its RIA to use the corporate platform offered by midsize wealth manager LaSalle St. Led by 33-year industry veteran advisor Joe Sarappo, the practice manages $200 million in client assets. In addition to dropping its own RIA for LaSalle St.’s advisory entity, the practice is leaving its prior broker-dealer, APW Capital, for that of LaSalle St. “Since I started Retirement Planning Specialists in 2011, my attention has centered squarely on building trust with my clients and helping them live the lives they aspire to in retirement through solid preparation and planning,” Sarappo said in a statement. “Over the years, however, as the economic and regulatory dynamics around operating an RIA have grown more complex, I have found myself devoting more hours in the day to running the business, rather than serving our clients. LaSalle St. and its RIA platform, LaSalle St. Investment Advisors, offer scale and resources that will lift significant administrative burdens off our shoulders, allowing our team to enhance our client focus again.”

SEI, a turnkey asset management platform, announced a leadership shakeup of its independent financial advisor business. Erich Holland will now oversee distribution and engagement; Stephen Onofrio will lead advisor sales and relationship management; J. Womack will head up investment products and personalization; Allie Carey will manage digital experience and collaboration; and John Anderson will be in charge of practice management. The move was to help SEI better serve financial advisors’ needs in the face of industry change and investor evolution, the company says.

SmartAsset, an online resource for connecting retail investors with financial advisors, closed a $110 million fundraising round that values the company at more than $1 billion. Existing investor TTV Capital led the round and was joined by Javelin Venture Partners, Contour, Citi Ventures, New York Life Ventures, North Bridge Venture Partners and CMFG Ventures. SmartAsset recently partnered with LPL Financial and claims it has grown revenue by 10 times since its last fundraising round in 2018. The company plans to invest the new funds towards improving the user experience for both consumers and advisors, especially its matchmaking functionality.