Janney CEO transitions to chairman as in-house successor takes reins

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Regional brokerage Janney Montgomery Scott intensified its ongoing executive shakeup with more leadership changes, as longtime CEO and President Timothy Scheve stepped back to become chairman of the firm. 

But in Janney's case, the more things change, the more they stay the same, it seems. By selecting an insider with experience in technology and operations, the firm is signaling that it plans to continue delivering the same advisor-centered culture that it's touted in recruiting, while still investing in tech upgrades to compete with larger brokerages and wirehouses. 

Janney

Janney

Scheve's expected successor, the firm's longtime chief administrative officer, Anthony "Tony" Miller, is now interim president. Miller's first day on the job was Jan. 11, according to a company spokesperson. Scheve and Miller declined to be interviewed.

"Tony has been named interim president as part of a governance process. We are not conducting a search at this time and no other candidates are being considered," a company spokesperson said in an email, adding that Scheve is not retiring but instead will be helping with a planned succession. 

Outgoing CEO Scheve has been with the firm since 2007 and came over from asset management firm Legg Mason. Under his leadership, the firm added 44 office locations and increased revenue by 127%, ending 2022 with a record $980.8 million, the company said in an emailed press release. 

Scheve also more than doubled the firm's total assets under management in its advisor unit, Private Client Group, from $49.3 billion to $120.8 billion. Over his tenure, the average financial advisor's AUM ballooned from $57.9 million to $142.1 million, as the company increasingly built out services for a more affluent client base. 

Scheve said in a statement that Miller "routinely influenced our growth strategies. His many years of industry experience and proven leadership will ensure the firm continues to meet the needs of our clients."

Miller, who is a certified public accountant, began his career in accounting at Ernst and Young. He spent more than two decades at Janney, joining in 2002 as the director of internal audit, becoming corporate controller in 2004 and moving up to become treasurer and chief financial officer. In 2012, he became the chief administrative officer — a role often considered equivalent to that of COO, in the corporate tree — overseeing finance, operations, and IT. 

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In a sign of his plans as the firm's incoming leader, Miller said during a podcast interview with AdvisorHub last summer that he was prioritizing investing in advisor-client relationships and that Janney's value proposition lay in offering advisors more of a voice and higher pay as a percentage of revenue compared to at a wirehouse, but more support than at an independent firm. Janney, based in Philadelphia, is owned by The Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company. 

"The cost barrier to great technology gets smaller and smaller every year," Miller said in the podcast, responding to a question about persuading wirehouse advisors that they will still have access to quality tech platforms if they leave for a regional brokerage. 

He added that "we're not trying to turn [into] a multinational firm … It's just organizationally much simpler. And so it gets easier to innovate and to modernize the platform." 

Speaking about the relative unwillingness of regional firms to legally pursue departing advisors who take books of business to competitors, Miller said that, "We spend our time not trying to legally protect the business," all while creating "an environment where people don't want to leave."

Mark Elzweig, industry recruiting consultant, said in an email that "keeping the current leadership team in place will enable the firm to build upon its accomplishments over the past few years."