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Recruiting

As M&A upends IBD sector, 24 teams and execs make moves

ByTobias Salinger
January 6, 2020 10:52 AM

Recent eye-popping M&A deals are reshaping much of wealth management and leading thousands of financial advisors to switch firms. While the record-breaking consolidation affects each company and advisor differently, a look at some of the most recent moves can illuminate the key trends in the rapidly evolving industry.

Advisor Group was involved in the two largest deals of the year in the independent broker-dealer sector last year, with the private equity-backed firm's $1.3-billion acquisition of the Ladenburg Thalmannnetwork expected to close in the first half of 2020 and bring some 4,400 advisors into the fold. Reverence Capital Partners reportedly paid more than $2 billion to acquire a 75% stake in the 7,000-advisor network in August.

Financial Planning has rounded up the 24 most recent IBD advisor and executive moves. Together, they paint a picture of a highly competitive but fragmented industry. All dates on BD status come from FINRA BrokerCheck, while the SEC IAPD database and company announcements provided the information about their RIA and office of supervisory jurisdiction affiliation.

Herbert Financial Group

Location: Auburn Hills, Michigan

Financial advisors: Timothy Herbert, Scott Torosian and Kara Herbert

Total client assets: $500 million

Date of move: Dec. 4

New BD: LPL Financial

Prior BD: Centaurus Financial

Remark: The practice includes a father-daughter advisor duo in Timothy and Kara Herbert, and the elder Herbert built up its base of clients after his time as a human resources manager for General Motors. Under the move to LPL and its corporate RIA, the practice added new staff and expanded its office with a goal of more growth in the future.

Center for Wealth Management

Location: Troy, Michigan

Financial advisors: Robert Moore, Justin Williamson and Jeffrey R. Steele

Total client assets: $220 million

Date of move: Nov. 7

New BD: Commonwealth Financial Network

Prior BD: MML Investors Services (MassMutual)

Remark: The practice serves early retirees and clients approaching retirement, but it has also attracted a strong base of engineers and young professionals from DTE Energy in Detroit. The team had affiliated with MassMutual’s BD following its MetLife acquisition in 2016.

Goldstein & Associates

Location: Middleton, Wisconsin

Financial advisors: Jon Goldstein, David Sharpe, Adam Peters, Lisa Spadoni, Amanda Gausewitz and Kyle Kerkenbush

Total client assets: $565 million

Date of move: Oct. 10

New BD: Securities America (Ladenburg Thalmann)

Prior BD: Ameriprise

Remark: The practice’s founder had spent his entire 21-year career affiliated with the onetime Securities America parent firm. The team picked Securities America’s alternate corporate RIA, Arbor Point Advisors, which works with more custodians than its traditional corporate RIA.

Integrated Partners

Location: Fort Lee, New Jersey

Financial advisor: Harrison Till

Total client assets: $100 million

Date of move: Dec. 6

New BD: LPL Financial

Prior BD: Merrill (Bank of America)

Remark: The former football player for the Duke University Blue Devils and the Ohio State University Buckeyes spent nine years with the wirehouse before affiliating with LPL and the Integrated hybrid RIA and office of supervisory jurisdiction.

Strategic Wealth Advisors

Location: El Paso, Texas

Lead financial advisor: Henry Gallardo

Total client assets: $150 million

Date of move: Aug. 30

New BD: Triad Advisors (Ladenburg Thalmann)

Prior BD: M Holdings Securities

Remark: Gallardo launched the four-advisor practice in 2008, and he had been affiliated with M Holdings for three years before switching to the Ladenburg firm and its alternate corporate RIA with more custodial options, Triad Hybrid Solutions. He is also a founding partner of a network of independent advisors called Paso Del Norte Wealth Advisors with offices spanning locations between Phoenix and Dallas.

United Planners Financial Services

Location: Scottsdale, Arizona

Executive: Mike Baker

Total client assets: More than 415 producing reps and $16.5 billion (*as of 12/31/2018)

Date of appointment: Jan. 1

Prior position: president and general partner

Remark: The 20-year veteran of the firm is taking over the position vacated after the tragic death of CEO Dave Shindel while on a hunting trip to Colorado in October. The midsized IBD uses the tagline “adamantly not for sale” as one of the few remaining firms under majority ownership by advisors.

Yuma Investment Group Wealth Management

Location: Yuma, Arizona

Financial advisors: Tom Rush, George Davis and Adrian Elder

Total client assets: $350 million

Date of move: Nov. 11

New BD: None (Carson Partners)

Prior BD: LPL Financial

Remark: Ron Carson’s RIA poached the advisors — who have dropped their FINRA registrations — from his former longtime IBD and its largest hybrid RIA enterprise, Private Advisor Group. Founder Rush and its two managing partners aim to reach $1 billion in assets under management with Carson.

Gatewood Wealth Solutions

Location: St. Louis

Financial advisors: John Gatewood, Daniel Goeddel, Brian McGeehon, Christina Shockley and Aaron Tuttle

Total client assets: $550 million

Date of move: Nov. 22

New BD: LPL Financial

Prior BD: Northwestern Mutual

Remark: In making the move to the No. 1 IBD and its corporate RIA, the four other advisors received stakes in the practice founded by Gatewood in 1981. He had been affiliated with Northwestern for more than 30 years, building the practice into a 13-employee ensemble.

Ressler Financial Services

Location: Mason City, Iowa

Financial advisor: John Ressler

Total client assets: $115 million

Date of move: Aug. 8

New BD: SagePoint Financial (Advisor Group)

Prior BD: LPL Financial

Remark: The 33-year veteran advisor spent fewer than two years affiliated with LPL in his second tenure with the No. 1 IBD following its 2017 acquisition of the assets of SII Investments and other firms in the National Planning Holdings network.

Rise Private Wealth Management

Location: Bedford, New Hampshire

Financial advisors: Troy Aarthun, Sharon Hickey and Kevin Kimball

Total client assets: $126 million

Date of move: Sept. 27

New BD: Ameriprise

Prior BD: MML Investors Services (MassMutual)

Remark: The trio of advisors affiliated with Ameriprise through its franchise channel, opting to align into the Rise enterprise of 19 advisors in three locations. They had previously been affiliated with MassMutual’s IBD for two years following its acquisition of the MetLife Premier Client Group in 2016.

PGA Financial Group

Location: Wayne, New Jersey

Financial advisor: Pat Gilmore

Total client assets: $125 million

Date of move: Nov. 7

New BD: LPL Financial

Prior BD: SagePoint Financial (Advisor Group)

Remark: The former president of his state’s FPA chapter brought his 23-year-old practice to LPL and its corporate RIA. The advisor to some 200 clients, Gilmore had spent more than a decade affiliated with the Advisor Group IBD.

BostonPremier Wealth

Location: Hanover, Massachusetts

Financial advisors: Mark Bossey, Ryan Marini, Joshua Grieves and Geoff McCarthy

Total client assets: $225 million

Date of move: Nov. 15

New BD: Commonwealth Financial Network

Prior BD: LPL Financial

Remark: Partners Bossey and Marini share staff with a sister practice — McCarthy’s Peloton Wealth Management of Concord, Massachusetts — that also made the move. Their practice had spent the past seven years affiliated with LPL after an earlier tenure with Signator Investors.

HMC Partners

Location: Greensboro, North Carolina

Financial advisors: Gib McEachran and John Hardy

Total client assets: $270 million

Date of move: Nov. 27

New BD: Cetera Advisor Networks (Cetera Financial Group)

Prior BD: LPL Financial

Remark: The practice’s partners and “Money Matters” radio show hosts spent 14 years affiliated with LPL before switching their IBD to Cetera’s largest firm and the OSJ-like “region” formed out of Summit Financial Group. In a statement, McEachran said the practice chose Summit and Cetera after a search and due diligence process that lasted nearly three years.

Whittenburg Wealth Partners

Location: Salt Lake City

Financial advisors: Dan Whittenburg, Austyn Whittenburg and Rick Gallacher

Total client assets: $475 million

Date of move: Dec. 3

New BD: LPL Financial

Prior BD: Lincoln Financial Advisors (Lincoln Financial Group)

Remark: The family-run practice affiliated with LPL Financial as its BD and Stratos Wealth Partners as its office of supervisory jurisdiction and hybrid RIA. Including the high-net-worth practice, Stratos spans more than 300 advisors with more than $5.4 billion in AUM in its hybrid RIA.

Diamond Wealth Management

Location: Las Vegas

Financial advisors: Staci Chamberlain and Shanna Kehoe

Total client assets: $105 million

Date of move: Oct. 18

New BD: Cetera Advisor Networks (Carson Partners)

Prior BD: First Allied Securities (Cetera Financial Group)

Remark: The practice switched its IBD between the two Cetera network firms in the process of affiliating with Ron Carson’s RIA. Chamberlain became owner of the practice in 2007, changing the name to Diamond while building it to a team of two advisors and three supporting shareholders.

CPC Financial Planning

Location: King of Prussia, Pennsylvania

Financial advisors: Rich Capasso, Earl Clairmont, John Paciello, Andy Gilinsky, Charlie Wilensky, Rick Clairmont and Frank Imperial

Total client assets: $390 million

Date of move: Dec. 9

New BD: LPL Financial

Prior BD: Royal Alliance Associates (Advisor Group)

Remark: Each of the seven advisors are CFPs and CPAs who are also affiliated with a 44-year-old accounting practice. Capasso, the president of the fee-only planning practice and an insurance and investment firm called Tanglewood Investments, had spent 22 years affiliated with the Advisor Group IBD before switching to LPL and its corporate RIA.

Hadel Financial Advisors

Location: Overland Park, Kansas

Financial advisors: Greg Hadel and Sean Aikmus

Total client assets: $165 million

Date of move: Oct. 21

New BD: LPL Financial

Prior BD: Woodbury Financial Services (Advisor Group)

Remark: Hadel launched the practice — where he now works alongside Aikmus, his nephew — in 1981. Prior to the move to LPL and its corporate RIA, Hadel had been affiliated with Woodbury for 26 years.

William R. Pintaric & Associates

Location: Youngstown, Ohio

Executive: David Pintaric

Total client assets: N/A

Date of move: Sept. 18

New BD: Securities America (Ladenburg Thalmann)

Prior BD: SA Stone Wealth Management

Remark: Under the move from his prior role as national director of sales and practice management with SA Stone, Pintaric launched a new OSJ. He named the enterprise for his father, the founder of a BD called WRP Investments where the younger Pintaric had worked for 27 years before Sterne Agee Financial Services purchased the 350-advisor firm in 2014.

Canal View Financial Advisors

Location: Pittsford, New York

Financial advisors: Richard Oaster, Chris Ginther, Kimberly Anderson, Vladimir Boulatnikov, John Kramer, Sandy Romeo and Ashley Standish

Total client assets: $350 million

Date of move: Oct. 24

New BD: LPL Financial

Prior BD: Ameriprise

Remark: In a statement, Oaster said he aims to expand the practice he and Ginther co-founded in 2009 into a billion-dollar firm in the next decade through acquisitions and organic growth. The former Ameriprise team is now using LPL’s corporate RIA.

ARA Wealth Management Group

Location: Hilo, Hawaii

Financial advisor: Stacey Williams

Total client assets: $160 million

Date of move: Dec. 5

New BD: LPL Financial

Prior BD: Bankoh Investment Services (Bank of Hawaii)

Remark: Williams is joining the same practice as her husband Rob under the affiliation with LPL and its corporate RIA. The Big Island-based team also operates as part of an OSJ called the Financial Services Network.

Kelton Financial Group

Location: Latham, New York

Financial advisors: Richard Kelton, Ryan Kelton and Sean Kelton

Total client assets: $600 million

Date of move: Sept. 3

New BD: Raymond James Financial Services

Prior BD: Northwestern Mutual

Remark: The team led by “Ric” Kelton and his two sons includes three other registered reps and five additional team members. The founder had been affiliated with Northwestern for 25 years before switching to the Raymond James IBD and its corporate RIA.

The Retirement Optimization Group

Location: Syracuse and Rochester, New York

Financial advisor: Ken Arellano

Total client assets: $90 million

Date of move: Oct. 21

New BD: Cadaret, Grant (Atria Wealth Solutions)

Prior BD: LPL Financial

Remark: The ensemble team includes a CPA, a registered sales assistant and a branch operations manager on its seven-member staff. Arellano had spent six years affiliated with LPL following tenures with Merrill and RBC over his more than two decades in the financial services.

Pinebrook Wealth Strategies

Location: Webster, Texas

Financial advisors: Bevin Hartnett and Joseph Restivo

Total client assets: $137 million

Date of move: Oct. 16

New BD: Raymond James Financial Services

Prior BD: Waddell & Reed

Remark: The two advisors had been affiliated with Waddell & Reed for a combined 34 years before bringing the Houston-area team to the Raymond James IBD and its corporate RIA.

Twenty Four Wealth Management

Location: New York, New York and Fairfield, Connecticut

Financial advisors: Anthony Truino, Michael J. Carbino, John Dougherty and Christopher Zapata

Total client assets: $460 million

Date of move: Dec. 13

New BD: LPL Financial

Prior BD: MML Investors Services (MassMutual)

Remark: The ensemble team includes a seven-member support staff and Truino named the practice he founded to refer to the importance of saving time for clients to spend with their families and their passions. The advisors affiliated with LPL as their BD and Stratos Wealth Partners as their hybrid RIA-OSJ enterprise.
Tobias Salinger
Chief Correspondent, Financial Planning
Recruiting Career moves Independent BDs M&A Business development Osaic Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Services
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