What you missed in wealth management: April 26-30

April 30, 2021 10:47 AM

Advisor Group, Raymond James and LPL all picked up advisors from rivals; New York Life said it will spend $1 billion over three years to narrow the racial wealth gap in the U.S.; and Stone Point Capital funds will acquire fintech Ascensus.

Here are some quick takes on career moves, fraud prosecutions and research studies within wealth management.

Recruiting roundup: Advisors Phil Battin, Mike Calabrese and Robert Teske of Warrenville, Ill.-based Ambassador Wealth Management left Securian Financial Group for Advisor Group’s Woodbury Financial Services. With $257 million in client assets, the team picked Northpoint Financial Group as its office of supervisory jurisdiction. Advisors Chuck Rebhan, Kevin D. Maher, Edward Lombard and Gregory Lowder ($200 million) dropped Ameriprise to affiliate with Raymond James. They joined Jacksonville, Florida-based independent practice Agility Wealth Management. LPL Financial added recruits to a couple of new affiliations it launched in the past year: Its Strategic Wealth Services channel for ex-wirehouse teams recruited Chad Taylor of San Diego-based Seapoint Wealth Advisors ($215 million) from UBS; And its employee channel, Linsco, picked up Menasha, Wisconsin-based advisor Dennis Durocher ($90 million) from Wells Fargo Advisors. Carson Wealth Chicago, which is affiliated with Cetera Advisor Networks, recruited two additional practices: Valparaiso, Indiana-based Mark Anleitner ($65 million) remained affiliated with the same broker-dealer but moved to Carson’s OSJ; and Gregory Worcester ($40 million) left LPL for Carson. Rockefeller Capital Management also poached the Oglevee and Devine Group from UBS. Headed by Stefan Oglevee, the 5-member team is the second group to join the new Private Wealth Division in Newport Beach, California.

B. Riley Wealth Management, a full-service private wealth and investment services subsidiary of B. RIley Financial, announced the addition of two senior portfolio managers. Eve Glatt and Maurice Onyuka, previously co-heads of U.S. equities at UBP Asset Management, have joined the firm through a strategic partnership and will remain co-managers of investment strategy at UBAM - US Equity Growth, a $215 million sub-fund of UBP, according to the firm.

Mario Tama/Getty Images

New York Life pledged $1 billion over the next three years to narrow the racial wealth gap in America by investing in diverse asset managers, community development financial institutions and other organizations in “underserved and undercapitalized communities,” according to the company. For example, the company is collaborating with Fairview Capital on allocating $150 million in making 15 investments in emerging asset managers. New York Life Managing Director Martin King is leading the program as the firm’s head of impact investments.

Wealth Enhancement Group, an independent wealth management firm, has joined forces with $1.6 billion California-based RIA Pillar Pacific Capital Management. The transaction is expected to bring Wealth Enhancement Group’s total assets to $31.8 billion, according to the firm. Financial terms of the transaction, which is expected to close in June, were not disclosed.

T.J. Kirkpatrick/Bloomberg

Barred former advisor Richard Kessler, 49, was arraigned this week at the federal courthouse in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on charges of mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering and failure to file tax returns. A grand jury indicted him in March, after investigators said he steered over $123,000 from four victims into his personal accounts.

Funds managed by Stone Point Capital, a Greenwich, Connecticut-based private equity firm, entered a definitive agreement to acquire fintech Ascensus from its current private equity ownership group led by Genstar Capital, Aquiline Capital Partners and Atlas Merchant Capital, according to the firm. The transaction is expected to close following regulatory approval and customary closing conditions in the third quarter of 2021. Further terms have not been disclosed.

Joe Skarda was named president of KeyBank Wealth Management. Based in Chicago, Skarda has worked in wealth management for two decades, most recently running JP Morgan Chase’s US Wealth Management Central Division.

Ubiquity Retirement + Savings added Vanguard ESG mutual funds and ETFs to its lineup of 401(k) offerings for plan sponsors, according to the firm. “With our new socially responsible investment portfolio, small business owners can empower employees with the opportunity to save for the future while applying their savings toward the causes they care about most,” CEO Chad Parks said in a statement.

Former Vanguard chairman and CEO Jack Brennan, a four-decade veteran who left the asset manager in 2009, has published an updated version of his book, now titled More Straight Talk on Investing: Lessons for a Lifetime. First published 20 years ago, the book “advises how to manage 'serious' money: the dollars people set aside for long-term goals, such as retirement or their children’s education. The book also emphasizes the concept that all investors should see themselves as a “financial entrepreneur”-managing their financial life as an owner manages a business,” according to Brennan’s published, Wiley.

Nottingham finalized the registration process for its first mutual fund-to-ETF conversion, according to the firm. The fund administrator’s trust Starboard Investment Trust completed the registration process with an agreed conversion date of May 7 for the Adaptive Growth Opportunities Fund. After completion, the fund will convert its assets to the Adaptive Growth Opportunities ETF (AGOX), with public trading set for May 10. “We believe there will be a significant number of open-end mutual funds that want to convert to ETFs in the next few years, and we are very pleased to be the first fund administrator and private label issuer with success in this process,” Nottingham CEO Kip Meadows said in a statement.

Soros Gold Bubble At $1,384 As Miners Push Buttons

Dale de la Rey/Bloomberg News

Over the last year, the combined market cap of the ten largest ETFs shot up by 47% as millennials and other retail investors poured into the markets, adding $540 billion to the funds’ AUM, according to Finbold. Those funds include SPDR, the largest, with $356.65 billion in assets; iShares Core, $277.58 billion; Vanguard Total Stock Market, $239.55 billion; Vanguard S&P 500, $220.06 billion; and Invesco QQQ, $164.03 billion.

SPACs, or special purpose acquisition companies, are having a positive impact on credit quality, according to a research paper from DoubleLine Capital. Findings from the sample group studied in the report found there was an overall improvement in the credit quality of a company’s debt following a SPAC merger. “Debt prices of target companies have experienced price appreciation of up to 4% after a SPAC has announced a target company,” writes Robert Cohen, director of the global developed credit team at DoubleLine. “In addition to price increases, credit investors benefit from significant deleveraging (i.e., strengthened solvency) and a fresh cash injection into the target company (i.e., improved liquidity). Credit investors should be on the lookout for bonds trading below their change-of-control put price or loans trading below par that can benefit from a SPAC transaction.”

An insurance broker who pretended to be a financial advisor pleaded guilty in federal court to defrauding clients of more than $1 million, the Justice Department announced. Brian Bartz, 39, of Rochester, New York, reaped commissions on life insurance policies he bought for clients who didn’t know they were buying the coverage, taking money from their accounts to pay premiums. He also told clients he was investing their money while spending it on himself. “The victims included a widow who ‘invested’ a $332,500 payout from her deceased husband’s life insurance policy with the defendant. Bratz stole all but $10,000 of that widow’s investment,” the department said in its press release.