Schorsch picks up yet another midsize IBD

Nicholas Schorsch continues to add midsized independent broker-dealers to the Cetera Financial Group Network, and on Wednesday night Cetera parent RCS Capital Corp. said it intends to buy Girard Securities Inc. The San Diego-based firm has more than $10 billion of assets under administration and 250 producing financial advisers with an average annual production of approximately $210,000 per adviser. It is the second such announced deal in as many weeks for RCS Capital Corp., which is known by its ticker symbol, RCAP. Last week, RCAP said it had agreed to purchase VSR Financial, with 264 registered reps and advisers. Mr. Schorsch is the executive chairman of RCAP, which did not release the terms of the Girard acquisition. The deal is expected to close late this year or early in 2015. Richard Woltman, chairman emeritus of the board of directors of Girard, is considered by many to be a pioneer of the independent broker-dealer industry, the two companies said in a statement. Forty years ago, he and two partners founded First Affiliated Securities, the predecessor of what today is known as First Allied Securities, a wholly owned subsidiary of RCAP. First Allied is also based in San Diego. Once the VSR Financial and Girard Securities acquisitions are completed, RCAP will have close to 9,700 registered reps and advisers housed at 11 different broker-dealers under the Cetera Financial Group. Cetera CEO Larry Roth earlier this week said the integration of certain services such as due diligence was going to be combined at the disparate RCAP broker-dealers, although the firms were going to maintain their separate brands and cultures. “We believe RCAP's commitment to maintaining the separate identity and culture of Girard was one of the most attractive aspects of this combination,” Mr. Woltman's daughter and chief executive of Girard, Susie Woltman Tietjen, said in a statement. “This transaction will allow Girard to leverage the resources of what we believe to be one of the industry's fastest growing and most innovative firms.” “We view Girard, along with our recently announced agreement to acquire VSR Group, as another example of an exciting accretive 'tuck-in' acquisition for our retail investment advice platform,” Mr. Roth said in a statement.