Unusual loss: Stifel team with $270M jumps to rival regional firm

Stifel, an aggressive courter of advisor talent, found itself on the wrong side of a recruiter move.

The firm lost a team managing $270 million to B. Riley Wealth Management, a rival regional broker-dealer.

It’s something of a rare event for Stifel, which has been peeling off advisors from its larger wirehouse competitors in recent years, though it also recently lost its chief recruiter.

A Stifel spokesman declined to comment on the group’s departure.

The firm’s recently reported headcount showed a jump to 2,127 advisors at the end of 2019, up from 2,051 in 2018.

Stifel opened 42 new branches last year, bringing the total to 446 offices.

But last week, advisors Mark Kaskey, Jason Beard and Bob Cellucci headed the other way. The team joined B. Riley’s office in Devon, Pennsylvania, a Philadelphia suburb. The office, which opened less than a year ago, is overseen by branch manager Michael McCall.

The trio started their careers at H&R Block Advisors before moving to Janney Montgomery Scott in 2008, according to FINRA BrokerCheck records. They signed on with Stifel in 2013.

Kaskey, the senior team member with 33 years of experience, will also serve as assistant branch manager for the Devon branch, according to B. Riley.

The firm was previously known as Wunderlich Securities before its acquisition in 2017 by B. Riley Financial, which later rebranded the brokerage.

B. Riley Wealth Management has 160 advisors operating in 20 branches, according to the company.