Cetera Plans Big Changes to Retention Bonuses
July 23, 2018 By Janet Levaux, ThinkAdvisor Traditional retention bonuses are "outdated," CEO Robert Moore says. After announcing its sale to private equity group Genstar Capital last week, Cetera Financial Group says it is working on equity plans for its roughly 8,000 affiliated advisors. Industry watchers say this move — and the overall deal with Genstar — should prove positive for Cetera. According to CEO Robert Moore, the firm believes that “advisors deserve more than a traditional retention bonus,” which … is “an outdated way to do things.” “Genstar is working on equity plans to foster that alignment and to engender broad-based and meaningful ownership that [goes beyond] … top producers,” Moore said in an interview. Traditional retention deals that include forgivable loans, he says, are less than ideal, since that money does not “go to...