NFP scores big with Financial Telesis recruits who forgo signing on with LPL

NFP Advisor Services, the brokerage unit of National Financial Partners Corp., has made hay in light of a recent deal announced between LPL Financial and Financial Telesis.
NFP Advisor Services reported that it had wrapped up a recruiting spree over the past six to eight weeks in which it landed 53 advisers, the “vast majority” of which came from Financial Telesis, according to James Poer, the firm’s president.
The haul could add around $30 million in annual revenue to NFP’s brokerage unit, which would be an increase of about 10% in total revenue for the firm, Mr. Poer said.
Jodie Papike, a recruiter who focuses on the independent-broker-dealer space said that while the $30 million in revenue number sounds high, it could be reasonable because Financial Telesis had a lot of high-end advisers producing over $1 million annually.
The Financial Telesis advisers who join NFP are forgoing signing on with LPL, which announced a deal to purchase the assets of Financial Telesis in July. The approximately 470 former Financial Telesis advisers had until mid-August to decide whether they would sign on with LPL, which has around 13,600 advisers, or move elsewhere.
LPL spokeswoman Betsy Weinberger declined to comment.
(More: $450 million hybrid RIA network launches with LPL)
Commonwealth Financial Network said earlier this week it had picked up a $700 million Financial Telesis broker, Benjamin Wong. A retirement plan adviser firm, Pension Advisors, which managed $1.3 billion at Financial Telesis, aligned with Independent Financial Group, according to IFG’s managing director, David Fischer.
Combined, those brokers could have produced an estimated $7 or $8 million in annual revenue.
Financial Telesis had a total revenue of $85.6 million in annual revenue last year, according to InvestmentNews’ independent broker-dealer database. Approximately $50 million of that was commission revenue.
LPL’s chief executive, Mark Casady, said in an earnings call that he expected to reap as much as $25 million in annual commission revenue from the deal, the full terms of which were not disclosed.
“That [$30 million in revenue] number blows me away, but from looking at the numbers, it certainly seems possible” for LPL to reach its $25 million, Ms. Papike said.
All of the 53 advisers who joined in this instance already use the Retirement Plan Advisory Group software, which is sold by a subsidiary of NFP, and the move would allow them to remain on that same platform, Ms. Papike said. That could have been part of the appeal for the Financial Telesis advisers, she said.
“They had a lot of existing relationships with Financial Telesis advisers,” said Ms. Papike, who is executive vice president of Cross-Search. “That combined with the fact that they had a lot of the technology suited for their business and specialty niche made it a natural decision for a lot of those folks.”