Securities America Recruits $115M Advisor

A longtime H. Beck advisor with $115 million in client assets has left the broker-dealer for Securities America.

In explaining the move, Damascus, Md., advisor Randy Scritchfield praised the deeper staff, technology and service offerings at his new firm, a subsidiary of Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Services.

"I was never the type to look," says Scritchfield, who spent nearly 27 years at H. Beck -- "but when I started, I realized what some of the capabilities of the other brokers were."

In addition to Securities America's significantly larger corporate staff -- roughly 450 at the firm's Omaha, Neb.-based headquarters, compared with fewer than 100 at H. Beck, according to last year's FP50 data -- Scritchfield cited offerings like the firm's National Financial Services platform and Managed Opportunities NextPhase, a retirement income investment strategy designed to seek consistent income throughout a client's retirement.

"I wanted to reinvigorate my practice," Scritchfield says. "I felt a new broker-dealer, with substantial capabilities, was the best way to accomplish this. [Since then] I have expanded my staff to five, and I am looking to bring on new representatives in the coming year -- a younger generation, to help me both retain and capture the children of my clients."

Prior to joining H. Beck in 1987, Scritchfield spent three years at Calvert Securities, according to FINRA's BrokerCheck.

In a deal with broker-dealer Sunset Financial Services last year, Securities America acquired 268 advisors and $2.4 billion in client assets from Kansas City Life Insurance.

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