John Hancock’s IBD Looks to Cut More Deals Next Year
December 15, 2015 By Murray Coleman, Financial Advisor IQ As more insurance companies move away from acting as independent broker-dealers to focus on core financial products, one big industry name going in the opposite direction is John Hancock Financial. Executives of Hancock’s independent broker-dealer, Signator Investors, say they see the coming year as an opportunity to pump up mergers and acquisitions in wealth-management. “We expect consolidation in the independent IBD marketplace to continue into 2016,” says Brian Heapps, John Hancock Financial’s president. As more big carriers look to refocus on insurance, he adds, “we’ll be looking with an opportunistic eye on expanding our presence with advisors across the U.S.” Hancock rebranded its IBD two years ago to separate itself from the firm’s largely proprietary and insurance-based platform. Along those lines, the 1,500-strong network of independent advisors last month agreed...
