FSI Doubles Its Ranks By Adding Ladenburg Thalmann Advisors

With Ladenburg Thalmann the latest firm to offer subsidized Financial Services Institute memberships to its advisors, FSI’s membership ranks have grown to more than 33,000 advisors, the advocacy organization said in a statement.

That’s up from approximately 15,000 a year ago, according to an FSI spokesman. “The momentum our members are creating … will pay off in big ways this year,” Keith Kelly, FSI’s executive vice president and chief operating officer said in the statement. As membership increases, FSI’s influence also grows correspondingly, he said.

Ladenburg Thalmann made the arrangement for all three of its independent broker-dealer subsidiaries: Securities America, Triad Advisors and Investacorp, along with their roughly 2,700 affiliated independent financial advisors.

The subsidized program allows a broker-dealer to offer its advisors a greatly reduced individual membership rate to join FSI. An FSI spokesman did not divulge the exact rate, but said it is a “fraction” of the standard $99 individual membership cost that advisors pay if their firms themselves are FSI members. After the first year, all the advisors also stay with FSI for a second year, but at the normal $99 rate, according to the arrangement.

FSI started enrolling advisors through this subsidized plan in early 2011. Other large broker dealers that have signed up their advisors this way include LPL, Investors Capital and Cetera.

Danielle Reed writes for Financial Planning.

 

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