In the News

What Will Life After Ameriprise Mean for Securities America Advisors?

00:00 01 April in In the News by rafferty

by Donna Mitchell and featured in Financial Planning April, 2011: April is not turning out the way that Securities America's advisors had envisioned. Its parent company, Ameriprise Financial, had just agreed to back a $150 million settlement between the broker-dealer and investors who had lost about $400 million from faulty, and in some cases, fraudulent, private placement investments. On Friday, a federal judge in Dallas is expected to rule on whether to accept the settlement. In March, executives for Securities America argued that the firm’s survival hinged on a $21 million settlement that Securities America had worked out with class-action plaintiffs. But last Monday, Ameriprise Financial announced in its first-quarter earnings release that it would find a buyer for Securities America. “We appreciate the many years Ameriprise has committed to our independent business model. Their...

Multi-Financial Comes Out of Hiding With Big Growth Plans

00:00 01 April in In the News by rafferty

by Diana Britton and featured in Registered Rep April, 2011: Independent broker-dealer Multi-Financial is undergoing a major growth initiative, ramping up its recruiting, wealth management platform capabilities and practice management services, said President and CEO Brett Harrison. Recruiting is already up 900 percent from last year, and the firm has brought on $9 million in production in the past five months, and plans to add $20 million in total production this year. Under the IBD’s former parent, ING, Multi-Financial stayed under the radar, Harrison said. At ING, the firm was not encouraged to do much advertising and marketing. “We’ve been quiet for years.” In November 2009, Lightyear Capital announced its plan to purchase the three broker/dealers—Multi-Financial, Financial Network and PrimeVest Financial—from insurance company ING and renamed the group Cetera Financial Group. Under the new...

Hybrid Hustle

00:00 01 April in In the News by rafferty

by Diana Britton and featured in Registered Rep April, 2011: Independent broker/dealers have lately been ramping up their efforts to attract hybrid advisors, launching new recruiting efforts and rolling out integrated commission and fee-based platforms and hybrid-specific services. Meanwhile, two major custodians released reports about the importance of the hybrid market — defined as those firms that operate an independent RIA and have a broker/dealer affiliation — in the past several weeks. Hybrid advisors still represent a small segment of the business, accounting for only about 5 percent of all advisors, but that number should rise to around 8 percent by 2014, according to Cerulli Associates. Cerulli projects total hybrid headcount will grow 11.8 percent this year to about 15,830 advisors. “Broker/dealers who do not carefully evaluate the hybrid opportunity run the risk of...