Merrill Lynch, LPL, Raymond James, plus BNY’s new ETFs, Vanguard cutting expense ratios and FPA’s student summit

December 17, 2021 1:47 PM

The Financial Planning Association’s Michigan chapter is hosting a Student Success Summit in February, an event designed to help students interested in the field connect with potential mentors. Two retiring executives set off a slew of management changes at Merrill Lynch. Dimensional Fund Advisors is cutting fees on dozens of mutual funds and a few ETFs. As alway, there are advisors on the move and mergers and acquisitions. Scroll through to find what you might have missed this week in financial planning news.

Financial advisor Anthony David spent 20 years with wirehouses before launching an independent practice, Adalan Private Wealth, under a brokerage affiliation with Raymond James Financial Services and Concurrent Advisors as its office of supervisory jurisdiction. The Washington, D.C.-area practice managed $400 million in client assets with David’s prior firm, Morgan Stanley. Its name comes from his children’s names: Adam, Alex and Anthony Jr. “I wanted to show my children that it’s not OK to settle,” David said in a statement. “I’m looking for the best for my family, but I’m also looking for the best for my clients. Independence was the hardest professional decision in my life, but I am 100% confident it was the right decision.” Concurrent spans 127 advisors in 57 offices with $13.3 billion in client assets.

Private equity-backed RIA consolidator Hightower secured an agreement to acquire 6 Meridian, a Wichita, Kansas-based hybrid RIA with $1.8 billion in client assets and two dozen employees, including 11 advisors. Financial advisors Margaret Dechant, Thomas Kirk, Andrew Mies, Bryan Green, Pam Smith and Sarah Hampton launched 6 Meridian in 2015, and the practice had a brokerage affiliation with Private Client Services prior to the expected close of the deal in the fourth quarter. “We have grown rapidly thanks to our collaborative structure and outstanding team of dedicated professionals,” Dechant, the firm’s CEO, said in a statement. “Hightower is investing in us to help with our long-term growth goals, and we welcome the support that allows us to serve our clients for decades to come.”

In four different moves announced this week, LPL Financial, the nation’s largest independent broker-dealer picked up teams from Wells Fargo Advisors, Morgan Stanley and Securities America. Financial advisors Bob Trent, Gene Foley and Michael Markovich chose LPL's employee affiliation, Linsco by LPL. Financial advisors Kris Lamont, Thomas Alexander and Amy Dixon of Mason City and Clear Lake, Iowa-based Lamont Financial Group went to LPL with JFC Advisor Network as their office of supervisory jurisdiction. Between them, the four practices managed a combined $545 million in client assets. LPL works with 19,000 advisors, 800 bank and credit union investment programs and 450 independent RIAs.

The Financial Planning Association’s Michigan chapter plans to host its second annual

Student Success Summit

on Feb. 4. The free daylong virtual event is for students nationwide who are interested in pursuing planning careers and features a career fair, scholarships and an array of educational sessions. Behavioral finance author Daniel Crosby will lead a session on the topic, alongside others taught by advisors on topics such as “Landing Your Dream Job,” “What is Financial Therapy?” and practice marketing. The first Summit drew 160 students and 20 faculty members earlier this year. “The chapter’s goal is to help students find their ‘profession heroes’ before they graduate instead of having to stumble along through their first few years in their careers,” said Stephanie Trexler, the Michigan FPA’s career development director. “Our profession is unique in that we are a community that is not in major competition with one other. It means so much to see so many of the leading thought leaders give back their time to the next generation of planners so we can open the profession up to a whole new generation.”

The Independent Advisor Alliance, an office of supervisory jurisdiction with LPL Financial, has recruited three different teams going independent from their former brokerage firm, Stephens. With the addition of Columbia, South Carolina-based Way & Way and father-son team Dennis and Reese Way, the firm’s haul from Stephens topped $1 billion in client assets. “Our friends and clients trust us to give them confidence and comfort when it comes to their personal financial affairs,” Dennis Way said in a statement. “What we want, what is most important to us, is our client’s financial well-being. Partnering with IAA provides us with the tools and expertise to do just that.” As one of LPL’s largest enterprises, IAA has 150 practices with $15 billion in client assets.

Private equity-backed RIA consolidator Beacon Pointe Advisors has acquired Pacific Edge Advisors, a high net worth practice with more than $678 million in assets under management. Like Beacon Pointe, Pacific Edge has its home in Newport Beach, California, where the practice that’s led by advisors David Emmes and Heidi Benavidez offers family office services to clients with at least $20 million in investable assets. “Beacon Pointe has spent years building the infrastructure and client resources that we were in the earlier stages of developing,” Benavidez said in a statement.

Financial advisors Jimmy Woods and Brent Walker of Nashville-area Fortress Wealth Management left LPL Financial for Cetera Financial Group’s Cetera Advisors. The practice operates from an office in the historic district of Smyrna, Tennessee, where administrative assistant Victoria Hirtzer joined Woods and Walker in making the change of independent brokerage firms. “Our team is poised for continued expansion, and we are confident that this new partnership will give us the cutting-edge resources to seize future growth opportunities while continuing to deliver an exceptional client experience,” Woods said in a statement.

Global wealth and asset manager Vontobel will boost its North American business by acquiring UBS subsidiary UBS Swiss Financial Advisors and combining it with Vontobel Swiss Wealth Advisors. With about $7.8 billion from the UBS unit, the merged entity will have more than $10.8 billion in client assets among qualified U.S. and Canadian customers seeking Swiss-domiciled wealth and investment services. The deal of an undisclosed size is expected to close in the third quarter of next year, at which time UBS plans to continue to refer clients to its former subsidiary. “This acquisition not only ensures UBS's U.S. clients continue to have access to a Swiss-based money-management firm, but it also simplifies our business structure and enables us to focus on core activities with scale in line with our strategic priorities,” Tom Naratil, the president of UBS Americas, said in a statement.

Bloomberg News

After 30 years each with Merrill Lynch, division executives Bill Lorenz and Paul Lambert are retiring from the wirehouse. With the longtime managers stepping down, the firm made a slew of additions to President Andy Sieg’s senior leadership team: the current division executive for the Mid-Atlantic, Lindsay Hans, will take over the same role in the Northeast; National Business Development Executive Craig Young is replacing her as division executive in the Mid-Atlantic; the company promoted its market executive for Charlotte, Chandler Root, to the division executive for the Midwest; and Kenneth Correa, the chairman of the Merrill Hispanic Latino Advisory Council and the market executive for Rockefeller Center, will succeed Young in the role of national business development executive.

Asset manager Dimensional Fund Advisors plans to slash fees on 47 mutual funds and three ETFs on Feb. 28. Among affected funds, the changes will reduce management fees by 13% across products that include global equities and bonds, as well as those tied to ESG criteria. “For 40 years, Dimensional has been an industry leader in providing low-cost, diversified strategies,” Dimensional Co-CEO Gerard O’Reilly said in a statement. “We are committed to continuing to offer investors robust solutions that provide the benefits of indexing with the higher expected returns and increased risk management of flexible, daily implementation.”

Alongside sub-advisor Newton Investment Management, BNY Mellon Investment Management launched three active ETFs designed to invest in firms with what the firms deem to be sustainable business practices. The new funds are called the BNY Mellon Sustainable U.S. Equity ETF (Ticker symbol: BKUS), the BNY Mellon Sustainable International Equity ETF (BKIS) and BNY Mellon Sustainable Global Emerging Markets ETF (BKES). "As investors and advisors continue to seek out innovative ways to invest for long-term growth while also driving meaningful change across a variety of ESG-related initiatives, the demand for fully transparent, actively managed investment strategies has grown, specifically within ETFs and sustainable solutions," Andy Provencher, BNY Mellon’s head of North America distribution, said in a statement.

Private equity-backed RIA consolidator Wealth Enhancement Group has agreed to make its 17th acquisition of the year. It’s a deal of an undisclosed price that will push the firm’s client assets to $55.5 billion upon the expected close on Dec. 31. The Gensler Group, a San Diego-based hybrid RIA practice, manages $512 million in client assets with a six-member team led by founder Daniel Gensler, wealth advisor Chaz Fahrner and Branch Operations Supervisor Loretta Perry. Like Wealth Enhancement, the incoming practice uses LPL Financial as its brokerage. “After reviewing the offerings of other independent firms nationwide, we have conviction that Wealth Enhancement Group will boost our continuing efforts to offer clients the services they need to navigate their financial lives for decades so that they may live their best life possible,” Gensler said in a statement.

Giant asset manager Vanguard cut the expense ratios on 17 fund shares, reducing the prices by an estimated $18.9 million. The affected products include nine fixed-income ETFs, where Vanguard manages $75.7 billion and is slashing its single-digit expense ratios by another basis point across the funds. Other affected families among equity and balanced mutual funds and ETFs will see cuts ranging up to 12 basis points.

Perigon, an RIA with more than $3 billion in client assets and a minority investor in Merchant Investment Management, secured an agreement to acquire Irvine, California-based Baker & Associates. The incoming RIA practice led by 34-year planner Chris Baker manages $200 million in client assets. “We wanted to work with a firm that had both the resources and scale to help streamline our operations, but also understood that we need to maintain our autonomy and our ability to serve our clients in the ways that make sense for them,” Baker said in a statement.

Rohit Mahna, who worked more than 10 years at Salesforce overseeing the CRM company’s financial services practice, is joining Fidelity Institutional as the firm’s new head of client growth. Mahna helped develop Salesforce’s first industry-specific product, the Financial Services Cloud, which helped financial services become Salesforce’s largest industry practice. At Fidelity, Manha will lead the sales and relationship management teams in the client relationship group, and will report to Fidelity Institutional president Mike Durbin.

After temporarily remaining with Voya Financial Advisors following

Cetera Financial Group’s acquisition of certain assets

of the firm’s independent wealth manager earlier this year, financial advisor Shawn P. Millerick has switched over to the acquiring firm. Millerick, who managed more than $190 million in assets at the New Hampshire-based practice with his prior brokerage, affiliated with Cetera Advisor Networks and joined the unit composed of the former Voya teams, Cetera Wealth Partners. "Cetera's flexible affiliation model, deep expertise in supporting advisors and long track record of helping financial professionals provide superior service to their clients were among the key factors driving our decision to join the network,” Millerick said in a statement. “In addition, I look forward to reconnecting with many of my former colleagues who have also made the decision to team with Cetera."

Merchant Investment Management, a private wealth management operating partnership, unveiled two additions to the expanding group of major firms that have received its non-controlling, minority investments: Brainvest Wealth Management and Private Advisor Group. Brainvest is an international wealth manager with $3 billion in client assets across offices in Geneva, Zurich, Miami, São Paulo, and Rio de Janeiro. Private Advisor Group is a hybrid RIA with LPL Financial as its primary brokerage and more than $30 billion in assets under management across 700 advisors. “We have long admired Merchant’s commitment to their business owners, independent operating model and the financial profession,” Private Advisor Group CEO Robert “RJ” Moore said in a statement. “With so much untapped potential in the wealth management space, Private Advisor Group looks forward to continuing to enhance and introduce leading options for the financial advice profession now and for generations to come.”