Wells Fargo, RBC, LPL Financial, SEC warnings and actions, and other news of the week

August 2, 2021 12:57 PM

Mariner Wealth Advisors continues to be active in the acquisition space, making its 26th deal of the year. A new ETF allows investments in securities backed by mortgage loans for minority, low- and moderate-income families, and those in persistent poverty. Advisors are on the move to LPL Financial, B. Riley Wealth Management, Stifel and others.

Scroll through to see more of the week’s financial news.

A five-person team led by financial advisor and estate planning attorney Jason White left the trust and investment management department at Greenfield Banking Company to join Carson Partners and launch a new firm called Dynamic Legacy Planning. The Greenfield, Indiana-based team managed $55 million in client assets with its prior firm. “When I decided to set up a new entity, I started thinking about all the things that would be required to do so — marketing, technology, investment management, social media, client communications, and how much time that would all take when all I was trying to do was spend more time with my clients,” White said in a statement. “I didn’t want to have to make all those decisions when Carson had already figured it all out.”

The RIA M&A arm of Kestra Financial, Bluespring Wealth Partners, hired Angela Osborne to be its chief operating officer. Osborne had earlier industry tenures with Morgan Stanley and First Republic Bank, and she joined Bluespring from Aperio Group, where she helped lead AUM growth of more than 50% over a three-year span before the company was acquired by BlackRock last year. “Since our founding, we have established ourselves as an industry-leading acquirer of wealth management firms seeking to maximize their business and create a long-term continuity plan,” Stuart Silverman, the president of Bluespring, said in a statement. “The addition of Angela, along with her strategic business leadership skills and extensive executive experience, will further scale and optimize corporate infrastructure and growth for our partner firms.”

RIA consolidator Mariner Wealth Advisors has unveiled its third acquisition agreement in four weeks, and 26th overall, with Ventura, California-based Channel Islands Group. The fee-only RIA led by founding partners Michael Snowden Jr. and Russ Charvonia has $277 million in assets under management and a substantial estate planning practice. “I am so proud of the business our team has built and what we’ve achieved over the years,” Snowden Jr. said in a statement. “Joining the Mariner Wealth Advisors family will allow us to build upon this growth and support our clients for generations to come.”

A new ETF enables clients to invest in agency mortgage-backed securities backed by pools of mortgage loans for homeowners who are minority families, low- and moderate-income families, or those living areas with persistent poverty. The product is called the Impact Shares Affordable Housing MBS ETF, and it has a ticker symbol of OWNS. Community Capital Management is the sub-advisor to the fund. Seed investors in the launch of the fund include Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America, BancorpSouth, Woodforest National Bank, and the California Community Foundation. The new product is launching three years after the same issuer’s Impact Shares NAACP Minority Empowerment ETF.

Financial advisors Kyle Smith, who holds a CFP, and Michael Sandlin left Truist Investment Services, formerly BB&T Scott & Stringfellow, to join LPL Financial’s employee channel, Linsco. With office support from employees Hollie Katz, Julie Roach and Ashley Reid, the team managed $740 million in client assets with its prior firm. The team will be the anchor tenant in a new Linsco branch in Raleigh, North Carolina, as SmithSandlin Wealth Planning. “We both have a desire to focus on our clients and didn’t want to be distracted by real estate or human resources functions,” Sandlin said in a statement. “We searched for the best wealth management platform in the industry, and we believe we found that with LPL.”

B. Riley Wealth Management has launched a new branch in Warrenton, Virginia, under financial advisors Steven Crouch, Jennifer Hardcastle and Jan Kamphuis. Registered Senior Client Associate Amanda Burton also made the move from their prior firm, Truist Investment Services, where the team managed $355 million in client assets. The team reports to Branch Manager Michael McCall, who is also B. Riley’s regional manager for the mid-Atlantic area. “Our team remains focused on providing the very best financial solutions and investment strategies available to meet our clients’ goals,” Crouch said in a statement. “We look forward to introducing our clients to the wide array of unique and highly customized financial solutions that the B. Riley platform offers.”

Small signage is displayed outside of a Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) branch during the company's annual general meeting in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on Thursday, April 6, 2017

RBC Wealth Management tapped 15-year company veteran Shareen Luze to be its first-ever head of culture and field experience, a position which also places her on the firm’s 10-person executive committee and makes her a direct report to CEO Michael Armstrong. In the role, Luze will lead a new diversity, equity and inclusion strategy, serve as co-chair of RBC’s Diversity Leadership Council, act as executive sponsor to the firm’s Women’s Association of Financial Advisors and oversee strategy for its charitable arm. “Never in the history of corporate America has the wellbeing of employees, creating a positive workplace culture and acting as a good corporate citizen have been as integral to business strategy,” Luze said in a statement. “While RBC Wealth Management has always operated with these values in mind, I am excited to take that commitment to an entirely new level and ensure they are knitted into the fabric of everything we do.”

Financial advisors Tim Devlin and Michael Jeremiah of Devlin Jeremiah Group left Wells Fargo Advisors to join Stifel in Spokane, Washington. The team, which also includes Client Service Associate Debbi Long, managed $239 million in client assets with its prior firm. They now report to Branch Manager Mark Graham. “Our team was determined to find a firm that puts the client first and has the culture and integrity to provide for success,” Devlin said in a statement. “We found that firm in Stifel.”

An unregistered advisor defrauded 20 clients for more than $2.2 million by promising big returns and protection of their principal with losses. He also provided false documents suggesting he was associated with a licensed broker-dealer and that investments were making lots of money, according to the SEC. In a civil filing in the Western District of Michigan, the regulator charged Joshua L. Rupp, 37, with fraud and acting as an unregistered broker-dealer. “Rupp solicited Main Street investors and depleted their retirement savings by using fake credentials and false documents showing extremely high returns,” SEC Enforcement Division Associate Director Jennifer Leete said in a statement.

The FBI Criminal Investigative Division and the SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy issued an

alert

warning the public about fraudsters posing as licensed brokers or investment advisors. The tactics employed by the fraudsters include fake social media profiles, cold-calling, false documents and websites with phony information. The regulators say clients should especially watch out for any individuals promising guaranteed high investment returns, making unsolicited offers or using suspicious payment methods. For example, most licensed firms don’t allow clients to use credit cards to make investments. Advisors and other wealth management professionals who want to report suspicious activity can

submit a tip

to the SEC.

With the departure of Chief Information Officer Scott Seese following an extended leave of absence to care for a family member with an advanced illness, LPL Financial made interim head of technology Greg Gates its chief technology and information officer. The firm placed Gates in the role in February, when Seese first left to care for the ailing relative. Gates joined LPL in 2018 after two decades in fintech management roles with firms such as PayPal and Bank of America. Gates operates from LPL’s campus in the Charlotte, North Carolina, area and reports to CEO Dan Arnold. “Greg has been integral to helping us improve the quality and speed-to-market of the technology solutions we provide to our clients, increasing the value we deliver to advisors for every dollar we spend on technology,” Arnold said in a statement. “More recently, as interim head of technology, he has demonstrated both the vision and operational excellence to deliver on our ambitious agenda to put our advisors, RIAs and institutions at the center of a differentiated digital experience that fuels their business and client relationships.”

Wells_Fargo_building_morning_light_Bloomberg_News

Wells Fargo Advisors tapped a wealth management executive with nearly three decades of experience to be the head of its Independent Advisor Group. John Tyers has joined the company to lead Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network, First Clearing and the firm’s RIA custody business. He has worked for an array of companies in the industry, most recently as chief growth officer for the wealth management fintech AdvisorEngine. His earlier tenures include positions with Merrill Lynch, Citizens Financial Group, Bear Stearns and Charles Schwab. In the new role, he reports to Jim Hays, the head of Wells Fargo Advisors. “I am thrilled to bring John on board as I believe we have enormous growth potential in our independent advisor channels,” Hays said in a statement. “With John’s past experience leading so many facets of the independent experience throughout his career, we are set to make these already-strong independent businesses even more powerful.”

ProNvest, a retirement planning and investment management service based in Chattanooga, Tennessee, launched Future Capital, a fintech platform designed to unlock access to defined contribution assets for advisors, banks, broker-dealers, credit unions and insurance companies. The scalable, plug-and-play service requires no recordkeeper integrations or plan sponsor relationships.

CUNA Mutual Group, an insurance and financial services company in Madison, Wisconsin, launched a registered index-linked annuity, ZoneChoice. The product features a new Barclays Risk Balanced Index developed specifically for CUNA that allocates between 50 U.S. low-volatility stocks and fixed income. The annuity also offers the S&P 500 Index and a declared rate account that lets buyers lock in a rate for one year.

RBC announced its

rapidly growing

U.S. wealth management business will start using the Broadridge Financial Solutions technology suite for advisors. RBC’s 2,100 advisors represent a significant win for Broadridge, which has been working to

expand its footprint as a wealthtech provider

. In addition to technology, RBC Wealth Management will also transition to Broadridge’s asset serving platform.

Prime Trust, which provides financial services infrastructure to fintech startups, closed a $64 million round of fundraising led by Mercato partners. The company plans to use the capital to expand into new markets, including wealthtech startups and RIAs. Zane Busteed, a principal investor at Mercato Partners Traverse Fund, and Tom Gonser, Docusign founder and an investment partner with Seven Peaks Venture, are joining Prime Trust’s board of directors. "It's amazing to see a company with the same explosive potential that I saw in the early days of DocuSign,” Gonser says in a statement. “Similar to how e-signatures radically changed the way we do business, Prime Trust's infrastructure will revolutionize the future of finance.”