As El Segundo, Calif.-based Cetera Financial Group emerges independent from the bankruptcy of RCS Capital, it has announced the consolidation of several firms within its broker-dealer network.
A source familiar with advisors at two broker-dealers, VSR Group of Overland Park, Kan., and ICC Capital Corporation of Lynnfield, Mass., have confirmed that their firms will be consolidated into other Cetera entities.
VSR Group will be consolidated into Boca Raton, Fla.-based Summit Brokerage Services Inc., while
Investors Capital Corporation, or ICC, will be consolidated into Denver-based Cetera Advisors, another broker-dealer.
“Based on extensive advisor feedback gathered across Cetera, we will be integrating both VSR and ICC within other firms in our network,” said Joseph Kuo, a Cetera Financial Group spokesperson, in a statement on Wednesday. “We will be selective with respect to the advisors invited from these firms to affiliate with our network’s other broker-dealers, in order to ensure the best fit possible with our company’s broader mission and values following the completion of our transformation process. We are taking this step to drive an enhanced and more focused support experience for selected advisors from these firms.”
The unnamed source confirms that Robert Moore, former president and COO of LPL, will be named non-executive chairman of the board of Cetera Financial Group’s parent company upon its emergence from Chapter 11 restructuring, which is expected to take place this month or in June.
“Larry Roth and his management team clearly have the respect and confidence of Cetera’s advisors,” said Ruth Papazian, retired chief marketing officer of HD Vest Financial Services and former CMO of LPL Financial, in a released statement. “Should this be true, this would be an enormous senior talent win for Cetera, which would be gaining an industry visionary who could support the existing Cetera leadership team in multiple ways going forward.”
Moore is currently CEO of Legal & General Investment Management America, an asset manager. The unnamed source says that Moore is expected to continue in that role.
Larry Roth will also continue as the CEO of Cetera Financial Group, says the unnamed source.
As of the Tuesday deadline, no objections were filed to the RCS Capital bankruptcy, said a source familiar with the company that has asked not to be named, which means that there are no further impediments to Cetera’s “expeditious” emergence from the process.