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Securian and Cetera generated $2.93 billion in combined annual revenue in 2021

15:45 03 February in In the News by rafferty

February 1, 2023 By Tobias Salinger, Financial Planning   The largest acquisition so far this year in wealth management comes with offers of retention payments to 1,000 Securian financial advisors, who are debating whether or not to join their buyer, Cetera. In an interview with Financial Planning one week after Cetera Financial Group’s Jan. 25 agreement to acquire the retail wealth business of Securian Financial Group, Cetera CEO Adam Antoniades confirmed that private equity-backed Cetera will provide financial incentives for “transition assistance” to advisors whose brokerage will change when the deal closes later this year. The parties didn’t disclose the financial terms of the deal. Antoniades declined to say how much financial assistance Cetera will extend for the incoming practices. He compared the deal to Cetera’s 2021 acquisition of certain assets of Voya Financial Advisors. Cetera is pledging to...

Are independent wealth managers that punish exiting financial advisors really independent?

12:53 02 November in In the News by rafferty

October 28, 2022 By Tobias Salinger, Financial Planning   Are independent wealth managers that punish exiting financial advisors really independent? After being diagnosed with a brain tumor, fighting in arbitration with a fellow advisor and their employer, Commonwealth Financial Network, and winning a $175,000 defamation award from the brokerage, financial advisor James “Jay” Womack said he spent nearly $200,000 on the legal case.   The cost was worth it, he said. Womack accused Commonwealth and the other advisor, with whom he worked closely, of collaborating to thwart a succession plan for his practice and taking over his book of clients. Commonwealth, Womack alleged in FINRA arbitration, defamed him by falsely telling his customers that he had made misrepresentations about the credit quality of bonds held by “an elderly client” and in a state unemployment benefits claim, along with...

Kestra Sells Minority to Private Equity Firm Oak Hill Capitol

13:30 10 October in In the News by rafferty

October 6, 2022 By Tobias Salinger, Financial Planning   An independent wealth manager that’s notching notable recruiting gains in an industry dominated by the giants picked up its latest private equity bet on the future growth of the firm. Kestra Holdings — the Austin, Texas-based parent company of wealth managers Kestra Financial and Grove Point Financial and their 2,400 financial advisors with $122 billion in client assets — added a new minority investor on Sept. 30 when Oak Hill Capital purchased the stake in the firm previously held by funds managed by Stone Point Capital. Firms once near to Kestra in size such as Signator Investors, Voya Financial Advisors and Waddell & Reed have merged into giants like Advisor Group, Cetera Financial Group and LPL Financial in recent years. In contrast, Kestra has built its own footprint steadily since the Stone Point...