Curian Capital advisors and employees are beginning to migrate to other turnkey asset management platforms as Curian starts its shutdown process, representatives of several firms including Assetmark and EQIS Capital say.

Announcements of new hires for former Curian employees and movement of advisors to other platforms has been coming out piecemeal since the announcement in July that Curian Capital was simply closing its doors as of next spring.

The move was highly unusual, according to other TAMP executives, who note that businesses are usually sold or merged rather than just closed.

Prudential Plc, the United Kingdom’s biggest insurer by market value, announced in July it would wind down the Curian Capital asset management operation in the United States. Curian had about $12 billion in assets under management at the end of last year and 304 employees, according to the SEC.

“When Curian launched 12 years ago, the competitive landscape and market trends favorably supported the business,” Mark Mandich, interim president and chief executive officer of Curian, said when the decision was announced. “Given the industry-wide changes in technology, product offerings and market size, Curian has determined that it is no longer commercially positioned to provide clients high value investment programs over the long term.”

In the wake of the announcement, several firms spoke up to say they were putting out the red carpet for Curian employees and for advisors who used the Curian platform for services and money management.

AssetMark Inc., based in Concord, Calif., has gained about $2 billion in assets through approximately 500 advisors who formerly used Curian, says Michael Kim, executive vice president of sales and national consulting, and more is in the pipeline. AssetMark serves approximately 6,000 advisors with $29 billion in assets.

“Our belief is this is an opportunity to help advisors who were put in a difficult position,” Kim says. “We have scale of operations to support an influx of new advisors. AssetMark does the paperwork and provides other services to help advisors make the transition.”

AssetMark announced in October it was acquiring Aris Corporation of America based in State College, Pa., which served 600 advisors. Earlier in the year it acquired the TAMP assets of Clark Capital Management Group in Philadelphia, which served 670 advisors.

From the Curian shutdown, AssetMark hired five business development and regional consultants formerly with Curian.

“We’re excited about this year and being able to extend our service to Curian advisors,” Kim says.

EQIS Capital, an asset management firm based in San Raphael, Calif., also stepped up as soon as Curian’s close was announced and said it would help advisors make the switch. Rick Parker, former senior regional business consultant for Curian, was hired by EQIS to help spearhead the effort as EQIS national sales manager.

He said no tally has been taken for the number of advisors coming to EQIS so far from Curian but “it is an ongoing effort to attract them.”

Curian served advisors with clients who had small accounts, as small as $25,000. “EQIS has always had a lot of clients with accounts between $25,000 and $100,000,” Parker says. “These are clients we have always attracted.”

Another firm working with Curian advisors is Beacon Capital Management, an RIA in Dayton, Ohio. However, Chris Cook, founder and CEO of Beacon, says, “It is difficult to find a home for advisors with smaller accounts.” Beacon generally has a minimum account size of $50,000.