RIAs

Meg Green & Associates, a South Florida RIA with $650 million in client assets, is switching its custody platform to Birmingham-based Sterne, Agee & Leach.

Independent planning firm RMR Wealth Builders of Teaneck, N.J., has left its long-time independent broker-dealer, the Cetera company, for Innovation Equity Partners Financial in Tampa, Fla.

With 478 advisors in 40 states, Independent Financial Partners is LPL's largest branch, but the Tampa, Fla., based firm certainly won't rest on those laurels. Currently, less than a dozen IFP advisors are fee-only, according to William Hamm Jr., the company's CEO, but that is about to change.

The Los Angeles-based RIA has hired new managing directors for client and business development.

The Coral Gables, Fla., based wealth manager continued it expansion by adding an advisors with 20 years of experience in investments and relationship management in the United States and Latin America.

The agency's order initiating administrative proceedings alleges that Noah Myers, president of MiddleCove Capital, netted "ill-gotten gains" of about $460,000, while his clients lost more than $2 million from around October 2008 through February 2011, when an employee threatened to report the activity to the SEC.

John Cartolano and his Scottsdale, Ariz., based team at NetVest Financial have joined Ameriprise from LPL, bringing with them $200 million in assets under management.

Already this year, Independent Financial Partners, which has nearly 500 advisors, has increased its advisor count by more than 50% over the total number of advisors it added in 2011.

Ryan Kaufman decided to leave Woodbury, where he has worked since 2009, after the company announced in July that it would be acquired by American International Group. "Given my personal experiences and past dealings with the potential new purchaser, I thought it would be hard for me to go back to my clients and explain that we were re-affiliating with the parent company," he said.

Jody Team, heading a three-advisor firm with $40 million in assets under management, has launched Deltamark Advisors, a "turnkey" RIA support firm.