In the News

RCAP’s Profit Jumps 12% as B/Ds Are Integrated

August 7, 2014

By Diana Britton, Wealth Management.com

On the heels of the firm’s latest acquisition of independent broker/dealer VSR Financial, RCS Capital Corp. (RCAP) reported adjusted net income of $42.6 million, or 49 cents a share, for the second quarter, up 12 percent from the same period a year ago. Revenues were up 22 percent to $825.7 million.

During a second quarter earnings call Thursday afternoon, RCAP executives said the firm had completed all five previously announced acquisitions of broker/dealers, including First Allied, Cetera, Investors Capital, Summit Financial Services and J.P. Turner. Executives are now focused on integration, and so far the firm has retained 97 percent of its advisors (based on gross dealer concessions), said Bill Kahane,

Searching High And Low

August 2014 Financial Advisor magazine

By Dan Jamieson

Independent broker-dealers looking to add new advisors might just want a “Goldilocks” type of market this year—one that’s not too hot, not too cold, but just stable enough to give advisors some confidence to make a career move.

“It’s hard to recruit right now [when] the market is doing what it’s been doing,” agrees Brad Fay, president of IBDSearch LLC. “There has not been a compelling reason to switch” firms.

But after several good years in the markets, advisors and clients “feel stable, and now might be the time [that advisors] think about” a move, says Scott Miller, president of FirstPoint Partners LLC, a recruiting firm.

LPL Financial added just 53 net new advisors in the first quarter of this year,

Another Insurer Exits the B/D Business

July 21, 2014

By Diana Britton, Wealth Management.com

Kansas City Life is selling Sunset Financial Services to Securities America

Kansas City Life Insurance Company announced the sale of its independent broker/dealer Sunset Financial Services to Securities America. Sunset has 268 reps, about $18 million in gross annual revenue, and $2.4 billion in client assets.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed. But Kansas City Life Insurance said the sale will boost the company’s assets, net of taxes and transaction expenses, by up to $2 million, or 18 cents a share. In an SEC filing, the company reported a net loss of $454,000 for 2013. The b/d’s comes primarily comes from the sale of variable life and annuity products—both proprietary and non-proprietary—as well as other fee-based products,