Securities America Ends 2012 with 309% Increase in Recruited GDC Revenue

Robust pipeline attracted to small-firm culture, big-firm technology

LA VISTA, Neb.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– The right mix of high touch customer service and high tech processes helped Securities America end 2012 with an increase of 309 percent in recruited gross dealer concessions (GDC) revenue.

“We’re perfectly situated to address two major advisor motivators for changing broker-dealers: advisors at wirehouses and large independent broker-dealers who want more responsive customer service, and advisors at smaller firms who want better technology and help growing their business,” said Jim Nagengast, CEO and president of Securities America, a subsidiary of Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Services Inc. (NYSE MKT: LTS). “We have a full recruiting pipeline of advisors who tell us either they have outgrown the capabilities of their current BD, or their current BD has grown to where it no longer values them and their business.”

In January, Securities America announced that 30 advisors from regional broker-dealer Eagle One Investments had joined – just weeks after Securities America acquired 130 advisors from Investors Security Company. Both groups cited increased compliance and technology costs as a primary reason for seeking a partnership with a larger company – and a responsive culture and accessible executive team as their reason for choosing Securities America.

“The financial pressures of running a successful broker-dealer today are squeezing many smaller firms to the point where it just makes sense to affiliate with a larger entity that can spread those costs across more advisors,” Nagengast said. “At the same time, they want support from home office employees whose names, voices and faces become familiar to them. Advisors want to know their business and their clients come first – and with Securities America, they can be confident in that.”

Securities America attracted its share of large producers and branches as well, including Ryan Kaufman’s Koi Wealth Management, a $1.3 million revenue branch in Rocklin, Calif., from Woodbury Financial Services; John Lindsey, a former Edward Jones advisor in Westlake, Calif., with $100 million in client assets; and Michael Mullis’ Kelly & Mullis Wealth Management, a Vestavia, Ala., practice with $223 million in client assets that moved from LPL Financial.

“From all the conversations I had with recruiters and executives, I could tell the Securities America culture was different from the …read more
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