Independent BDs

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.

In a nod to the competitive pricing pressure roiling the financial services industry, Advisor Group, one of the largest independent broker-dealer networks in the nation, has eliminated, or drastically reduced, the mutual fund fees it was charging to clients of its financial advisors.

In an effort to leverage its increasing scale while maintaining the independence of each of its four B-Ds, Cetera Financial Group is rebranding each of those companies with new names that all begin with Cetera.

Lauren Locker was elected national chairwoman less than two weeks after its incoming chairman, Ron Rhoades announced he would not assume the organization's helm because of a compliance violation by his firm.

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.

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.

A new online company, FutureAdvisor, aims to break open the market for sophisticated financial advice and make that service available not only to the wealthy, but to all investors. Launched in 2010, the Seattle-based startup says it already analyzes $4 billion in assets for its users and, today, it announced $5 million in new venture capital funding. …

LPL is determined to help advisors up their games in order to be able to serve clients who are generating new wealth or coming into possession of it.

A review of auditors that examine broker-dealers has unearthed an array of deficiencies in the process the firms use to evaluate their clients, including numerous of infractions that could amount to violations of SEC or FINRA rules.

Advisor-owned financial services firm HighTower has snapped up a Credit Suisse advisor team with about $1 billion in assets under management, marking the eighth team to move to the firm this year.

More than three in four advisors expect to continue selling variable annuities and allocate 11% of their assets under management toward these products, according to Cogent Research.

A new survey of broker-dealers highlights the extent to which their firms rely on back-office technology to manage and improve advisor relationships, while at the same time revealing broad dissatisfaction with the solutions that firms have currently deployed.

Birmingham, Ala.-based advisor group Bridgeworth Financial, with nearly $1 billion in AUM, has left Lincoln Financial to join the country's largest independent B-D, LPL Financial, in a move that demonstrates the benefits of scale.

FINRA levied almost $40 million in fines in the first half of the year and will likely doll out as much or more through the end of the year.

Insights gained at humble jobs long ago have helped these planners shape their messages to clients.

LPL Financial has announced an affiliation with Advantage Financial Group that will bring client assets of about $2 billion to LPL.

There have been more advances in technology for independent advisors in the past decade than there were in the previous 30 years. And the speed of this change is accelerating even faster today, giving advisors more tools to provide even better service to an even larger group of clients.

In the ongoing consolidation of the independent B-D space, insurer AIG's acquisition of Woodbury Financial Services brings the smaller firm in from the cold where it has become increasingly challenging to survive without a larger parent company.

You can always just add an advisor to the mix, but Kristen Pruitt, vice president of business development at Investment Professionals Inc., makes sure the cultural fit is right-or else the whole thing can fail.