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Author: rafferty

Ladenburg Thalmann to buy Securities Service Network for $45M

23:04 22 September in In the News by rafferty

September 22, 2014

By Bruce Kelly, Investment News

 

Latest addition will give firm’s indie B-D network 4,000 advisers and almost $1.1 billion in annual revenue

Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Services announced Monday that it had agreed to buy Securities Service Network Inc., known as SSN, which has close to 450 independent reps and advisers and produced $114.2 million in total revenue last year.

In a statement, Ladenburg Thalmann said it would pay $45 million in cash and stock for SSN, or 39.4% of annual revenue. That valuation, while not as high as some of the recent offers by Nicholas Schorsch and RCS Capital Corp., is in the historic upper range for such deals.

SSN is currently owned by a trust,

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investment advisor

Our Human Capital Disaster: Three big trends will exacerbate the advisor talent shortage

15:44 17 September in Articles Written by Jon Henschen by rafferty

September 2014 issue of Investment Advisor magazine

and the September 17 issue of ThinkAdvisor’s Daily Wire

By Jon Henschen

 

It may not be news that the advisor community is facing a labor shortage just as demand for professional advice is peaking. What is news is the scale of that shortage, and three overlooked trends are already playing out with the potential to make that shortage a catastrophe.

Men account for the overwhelming majority of existing advisors—around 80% or even more among some sectors of the advisor community. Moreover, a very large chunk of advisors—43%, according to Cerulli—are in or nearing their traditional retirement age. Finally, the percentage of advisors who are women has not appreciably increased since the industry began keeping track of that statistic.

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Advisers Must Avoid ‘Due-Diligence Lite’ on Asset Managers

21:17 12 September in In the News by rafferty

By Daisy Maxie

September 10, 2014 Wall Street Journal

 

The regulatory troubles of F-Squared Investments are a reminder to brokers and investment advisers of the need to do more than simply review the numbers a mutual fund company or other asset manager offers to demonstrate financial health and prowess.

Analyzing how the company arrived at the numbers is critical, specialists in vetting asset managers say. F-Squared, which builds portfolios of exchange-traded funds, recently acknowledged a deepening investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission into how it marketed some funds’ past performance.

Some brokerages dig deeper, or employ third-part specialists to help. In terms of ensuring that a performance record is accurate, most check to see if it is “GIPS compliant”–that is,

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