Former Cetera Group CEO Robert “R.J.” Moore has been named CEO of Summit, N.J.-based Private Advisor Group (PAG), one of the nation’s largest super OSJs, or office of supervisory jurisdiction. Moore plans to acquire a significant equity stake in the business, which supervises more than 650 advisors and oversees $21 billion in assets.

Moore has known PAG co-founders Pat Sullivan and John Hyland for more than a decade, dating back to when he was president and chief financial officer of LPL Financial Services from 2009 to 2013. PAG is believed to be LPL’s largest super OSJ. Though it outsources most of its back office functions to LPL, PAG is larger than many independent broker-dealers and large-scale RIA firms.

In 2016, Moore became president and CEO of Cetera Financial Group as it was emerging from bankruptcy. In September, 2018, Cetera was acquired by private equity firm Genstar for $1.6 billion. Moore left Cetera in March 2019.

Until now, PAG had been run by co-founders Sullivan and Hyland. According to the firm's website, there was no previous CEO.

“We’re not very good at organizational charts,” Sullivan joked in an interview. “We’re advisors at heart. This [bringing in Moore] frees us up from operational responsibilities.”

With his experience running a large network like Cetera with about 8,000 reps, Moore brings a level of management experience to PAG that Sullivan acknowledges the firm lacked before. One key reason to bring in Moore was to find an executive with the skill set to take the firm to the next level, Sullivan added.

For his part, Moore noted his new role will permit him to work more closely with advisors than he could have done in senior roles at Cetera or LPL, where he was primarily responsible for managing other managers. “This gives me a chance to focus on what I’m passionate about,” he said.

Moore’s investment comes at a time when private equity firms are circling the advisory space. Sullivan and Moore didn’t say it, but Moore’s investment could be viewed as an intermediate step for PAG.

“With the kind of talent that PAG has, the firm is perfectly positioned for what’s coming,” Moore said. "The pandemic and other events are flagging the need for holistic financial planning."

PAG has offices in 38 states and has about 55,000 clients. Most of the 650 advisors affiliated with PAG are hybrid RIAs registered with LPL but a growing number are RIA-only.