A sister-brother team that came back together two years ago left a smaller brokerage for Cetera Financial Group as part of a plan to expand beyond retirement plans to individual wealth clients.
Financial advisors Suzanne Holt and Brent Rohlik of Minneapolis- and Rockford, Illinois-based
Their transition marks the ninth-largest in recruiting wins and M&A deals among independent brokerages so far in 2023, with Cetera
Holt and Rohlik grew up on a farm in southwestern Minnesota and later began working together in 2000, when he joined her at an Advisor Group predecessor firm called SunAmerica Securities, they said in an email interview. She left their practice to focus on individual planning services, but Rohlik purchased the corporate retirement plan-focused firm and helped it expand to 10 times its initial size. In 2021, she came back to the practice at Regulus after a 17-year tenure with Ameriprise.
The pair's "personalities and skills complement one another," they said in the email, noting that Brent is the owner of Rohlik Financial Group and a "people person," while Holt is "more analytic" and has earned designations like accredited portfolio management advisor.
"We made the decision to shift the business from focusing on corporate retirement plans to individual wealth management and holistic financial planning relationships," they said. "This changed what we needed in support from and partnership with a brokerage firm."
Representatives for Kentwood, Michigan-based Regulus didn't respond to a phone call and email seeking comment on their exit.
Many teams around $1 billion in client assets decide to find a new brokerage relationship for several reasons, such as seeking out a larger firm that's less likely to change ownership, offers of transition assistance payments or a need for a more collaborative environment at a smaller firm, according to recruiter Jodie Papike of
Joining a branch like AdvisorNet enables teams to operate "within a smaller network of advisors," she said. However, factors like the degree that the office of supervisory jurisdiction — the industry's term for independent branches, or what Cetera calls its "regions" — might pose barriers if they consider leaving someday are something they "just need to vet out before" going to an OSJ, Papike added. "It's just a more complicated relationship."
Minnetonka, Minnesota-based AdvisorNet has grown from $1.2 million in annual gross dealer concessions in 1992 to a projected $85 million in 2023, Chairman Dan May
"We are confident the team will benefit from the scale that is important to their business, along with a powerful combination of Cetera's established resources and national reach paired with the local support and community at AdvisorNet," Mike Townsend, the senior vice president of business development at AdvisorNet, said in a statement about Rohlik's move.
In addition to the sister-brother advisors, Irlbeck was a childhood friend of Rohlik and Stoneberg has been part of the "tight-knit" firm since the launch, according to Holt and Rohlik. The advisory practice has clients in many states, with most of them in the Midwest. Cetera and AdvisorNet "checked all the boxes" when they were searching for a new setup enabling them to add more planning and wealth clients, they said.
"AdvisorNet felt like home from the moment we walked through the doors," Holt and Rohlik said. "They share our values, and the extra specialties and services they bring to the table round out our team."
At roughly 8,000 financial advisors across four brokerages generating combined annual revenue of $2.47 billion, Genstar Capital-backed Cetera is the No. 5 firm on
