sidebar

Connect: 319-210-7700

Connect: 319-210-7700

archive

Jon Henschen Tag

ThinkAdvisor logo

With IBD Business Model Threatened, Who Wants to Buy One?

19:27 17 December in In the News by rafferty

December 17, 2015 By Janet Levaux, ThinkAdvisor With talk of the possible sale of the AIG Advisor Group and Cetera, insiders share their views on the state of indie brokerage business As billionaire investor Carl Icahn pressures AIG to break up its different parts, speculation continues as to which firm might purchase the AIG Advisor Group, which includes the independent broker-dealers FSC Securities, Royal Alliance, SagePoint Financial and Woodbury Financial. Meanwhile, the Cetera Financial Group of IBDs, which Lightyear Capital sold to now-troubled RCS Capital for $1.15 billion in 2014, appears to be on the auction block as well. But does buying a group of IBDs make sense in the current economic and regulatory climate? “I think the traditional IBD model is under threat,” said Chip Roame, head of the consultancy Tiburon Strategic Advisors, in...

Financial Advisor IQ a Financial Times Service

John Hancock’s IBD Looks to Cut More Deals Next Year

16:13 15 December in In the News by rafferty

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...

ThinkAdvisor logo

SEC Agrees to FINRA’s BrokerCheck Change on Posting Firings

00:23 02 December in In the News by rafferty

December 1, 2015 By Melanie Waddell, ThinkAdvisor   FINRA will reduce from 15 days to three the release of disclosure information filed on Form U5 The Securities and Exchange Commission approved Monday the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s plan to reduce from 15 days to three the release of disclosure information filed on Form U5 through BrokerCheck. Firms use Form U5 to terminate broker registrations with self-regulatory organizations and the states. Most of the information that FINRA releases through BrokerCheck generally is made available the day after it is filed with the Central Registration Depository system. FINRA’s Rule 8312, however — which governs the information FINRA releases to the public via BrokerCheck — provided for a 15-day delay in disclosing terminations. The 15-day waiting period, according to FINRA, was established to give brokers on whose behalf the Form U5...