$1.5B firm bolts Securian, launches affiliated RIA

A Securian Financial Services firm with 45 advisors and $1.5 billion in client assets jumped to Triad Advisors in an effort to boost the practice’s wealth management business at a related firm.

GCG Financial, which is affiliated with recently launched insurance and employee benefits firm Alera Group, had been with Securian for at least 25 years, according to FINRA BrokerCheck. GCG President Rick Levitz formed a new RIA alongside its broker-dealer switch, which Triad announced this week.

Triad and the five other IBDs in the Ladenburg Thalmann network have lately been active in recruiting. Fellow Ladenburg firm Securities America has signed four big recruiting deals in the past three months. GCG Financial, which is based in the Chicago area, changed BDs from the 18th largest by revenue to the No. 29 firm.

“The affiliation with Triad is a major component to expanding our wealth management services to Alera Group,” Levitz said in a statement, praising “the flexibility of the hybrid RIA platform that Triad can offer” as helping the firm’s future efforts to retain and recruit advisors.

In an emailed statement, Securian spokesman Jeff Bakken confirmed the practice’s move. GCG and Securian executives made a mutual choice to end the BD partnership as a result of GCG’s “strategic focus on employee benefits and property and casualty insurance,” Bakken said.

“Securian is pleased to continue our product distribution relationship with GCG, and we wish the firm and its advisors all the best in the future,” he said.

GCG started as an insurance-focused firm in 1975, later branching into full planning and wealth management services. Alera Group, a network of 26 insurance and benefit firms sharing tools and resources, opened last year. Levitz formally established the RIA, Alera Investment Advisors, on Oct. 24.

The move to Atlanta-based Triad represents “a perfect example of why it’s crucial to be able to offer a maximum level of choice and flexibility,” Nate Stibbs, Triad’s chief strategy officer, said in a statement.

“GCG is an organization undergoing significant positive change in the form of significant growth opportunities that needed to be captured as effectively as possible.”

In August, Triad lured a hybrid RIA with $150 million in client assets from LPL Financial. On the other hand, the BD lost a firm in the fourth quarter of 2016 with $1.8 billion in assets under management. At the end of September, Triad had 565 advisors and more than $25 billion in client assets.