Peter A. Harbeck has become interim president and chief executive officer of AIG's Advisor Group now that Larry Roth has left to become CEO of fast-growing, broker-dealer Realty Capital Securities (RCS).

Advisor Group, one of the largest networks of independent broker-dealers in the country with 6,000 financial advisors, announced Thursday that Roth had left the company as president and CEO and Harbeck would take his place. The same day, RCS Capital Corp. (RCAP) announced Roth had been named president and CEO of its broker-dealer RCS, a leading distributor of both public and nontraded real estate investment trusts.

Harbeck has been on Advisor Group's senior leadership team for almost a decade, having served as chairman since 2004 and head of securities processing and other back-office operations since 2012. "Peter’s broad knowledge of Advisor Group’s operations and systems, and his strong relationships with the financial advisors affiliated with Advisor Group and its four broker-dealers, make him a natural fit for this role,” said Jay S. Wintrob, president and CEO of AIG Life and Retirement. Advisor Group's B-D subsidiaries are FSC Securities Corporation, Royal Alliance Associates, SagePoint Financial and Woodbury Financial.

Roth assumes the CEO role of RCS from Michael Weil, who will become RCS' chairman. Roth's "experience and strategic vision will contribute meaningfully to RCS' ability to grow its business and expand its role as the preeminent open architecture distribution platform for non-traded publicly registered securities," said Nicholas S. Schorsch, RCAP's executive chairman. Schorsch, Weil and RCAP CEO William M. Kahane started RCS in February 2008.

The hiring of Roth is another high-profile move by Schorsch that follows a series of acquisitions and mergers by firms he controls. In June, he announce that RCAP Holdings LLC, a holding company he manages with a team of real estate professionals, was acquiring First Allied Holdings Inc., which includes independent broker-dealer First Allied and The Legend Group, an investment and retirement plan provider. First Allied and The Legend Group have 1,500 independent financial advisors and 500 branches in the United States.

Industry observers noted that the recruitment of Roth signals that Realty Capital may well seek to expand its footprint in both the real estate and broker-dealer businesses.