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As Voya Financial sells off insurance groups, attention turns to its broker-dealer

01:03 31 January in In the News by rafferty

January 30, 2020 By Bruce Kelly, Investment News Voya Financial Inc. last month said it was selling its individual life insurance business, two years after it said it was selling its annuities businesses. The company has said publicly that it intends to focus on retirement, investment management and employee benefits businesses, and its broker-dealer, Voya Financial Advisors Inc., is tucked under its retirement group. But some in the industry perceive that Voya Financial, with roughly 1,700 advisers, could be the next broker-dealer up for sale, particularly as private equity funds are throwing money at and buying large broker-dealer networks like Advisor Group and Cetera Financial Group. Voya Financial is in the early exploratory stages of a sale of the broker-dealer but has not yet hired an investment bank, said an industry executive familiar with the...

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Advisor retention under spotlight after Advisor Group-Ladenburg deal

21:18 06 January in In the News by rafferty

January 6, 2020 By Tobias Salinger, Financial Planning When sealing a deal to buy another firm, independent broker-dealers also acquire a fight: Recruiting and retaining advisors from the purchased firm. For the 4,400 advisors affiliated with Ladenburg Thalmann’s five independent broker-dealers, the close of Advisor Group’s deal to acquire the Miami-based firm won’t mean a change. But the Ladenburg firms are combining with Phoenix-based Advisor Group’s four companies into a Brady Bunch of a network, with nine different IBDs and 11,500 advisors. The parties promise it won’t be a rerun of other deals, in which advisors lose their longtime beloved BD partner under a merger into a larger firm. Still, since Advisor Group knows it must somehow form a family after purchasing Ladenburg for $1.3 billion, its IBD rivals will be on the lookout...

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Will the Lull in Advisor Recruiting Last?

17:40 31 December in In the News by rafferty

December 26, 2019 By Janet Levaux, ThinkAdvisor The recruiting season in 2019 did not go out with a bang. It did, though, see some movement tied to the big news of late October, that Advisor Group is scooping up Ladenburg Thalmann. What’s ahead for 2020? Industry recruiters offer mixed views. Other Trends  But recruiter Mark Elzweig doesn’t see storm clouds ahead. “I believe 2020 will be a strong year for advisor recruiting — no matter what happens in the markets,” he said. According to Elzweig, there are plenty of advisors who realize “that good markets don’t last forever and that it’s advantageous to move with big trailing 12 [revenue or production] numbers and happy clients.” The post-crash advisor recruiting deals of a decade ago have now expired, he points out, which makes these advisors free agents. “Payout reductions and...

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Broker/Dealers Speak Out on Regulatory Vexation

16:41 11 December in Articles Written by Jon Henschen by rafferty

December 9, 2019 By Jon Henschen, WealthManagement.com Working in recruiting, the growth segment of financial services, it has always baffled me that FINRA can dictate the number of advisors that small and midsized broker dealers can bring on in a given year.  Imagine a broker/dealer being able to allot the amount of assets financial advisors can bring on in a given year, as if the broker/dealer knows better what the advisor can handle in asset growth. Even more perplexing is the fact that large broker/dealers have no restriction on mergers, acquisitions, branch offices or rep count, while small and midsized firms have restrictions on all of these. FINRA can use growth allotment as a weapon to penalize a firm, as one recruiter colleague of mine can attest. This recruiter called me for help in...