Fresh off a record year in 2018 with $64.3 million in gross recruited revenue, Commonwealth Financial Network added a team with more than $500 million in client account assets.
Financial advisors Neil Hoyt, Rachel Roney, Jeffrey Klein, Sonnet Loftus and Paul Ahrens of Michael Roberts Associates left Cadaret, Grant after nearly three decades to align with Commonwealth, the firms
Commonwealth produced $1.2 billion in revenue in 2017, making it the No. 4 IBD on
The average production of incoming advisors in 2018 topped $500,000 per producer, according to Andrew Daniels, Commonwealth’s managing principal for business development. The record resulted from attracting “a relatively small number of relatively high producers” to the firm, he says.
Hoyt’s team began thinking about a new IBD affiliation last year, when private equity-backed
“If we were ever going to make a move, Commonwealth’s the one I've been hearing about for 25 years,” says Hoyt, praising the firm’s technology, compliance and equity research. An impressive tour of its San Diego and Boston-area corporate offices sealed the deal: “We didn't even go visit anyone else after that,” he says.
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“I don’t want to call a helpline, I want a partnership,” the advisor says of her move to the firm, which expects to hit record gross recruited production.
December 21 -
Executives say valuing friendliness alongside other factors is helping to drive a record $66 million in incoming production this year.
November 28 -
Commonwealth Financial Network is helping advisors convert to full RIA status and, in the opinion of advisors and executives, shedding its traditional label.
November 12
Macroeconomic trends and matters of convenience will move advisors, assets and markets next year in the ever-changing wealth management space.
A spokeswoman for Cadaret, Grant declined to comment. The No. 32 IBD and other midsized IBDs CUSO Financial Services and Sorrento Pacific Financial operate
Hoyt came to Cadaret in 1991 after tenures with Pruco Securities and two other firms, according to FINRA BrokerCheck. He affiliated with Commonwealth on Jan. 2. Roney, Klein and Loftus spent a combined 66 years with Cadaret, while Ahrens joined in 2005 after three years with Morgan Stanley.
The practice is managing its fee-based accounts — which make up about 35% of their client assets — through Commonwealth’s corporate RIA, according to Hoyt, who says that share has been growing in recent years. The practice is also changing its custodian from Pershing to Fidelity’s National Financial Services.
In the last two months of the year, Commonwealth added
With 13 partners who have average tenures of nearly 25 years in their roles, Commonwealth has a “boringly consistent” track record of the same ownership structure, Daniels says. The first quarter of 2019 also appears to be on the same pace as the previous year for recruiting, he says.
“What separates Commonwealth from the rest is that the quantity matters far less to me than the quality,” Daniels says. “We're off to a great start, but we remain extremely careful and selective in our recruiting, and careful and selective about who works in the home office, as well.”
