The firm has been dogged by compliance issues for years, resulting in multiple fines by various regulatory bodies.
Fund flows - meaning sales of products - in March were “surprisingly resilient.”
Financial advisors are becoming a bit more leery that fees, particularly for their wealthiest clients, are on the verge of taking a hit.
Toward the end of last year, UBS said it was redrawing its pay plan for advisors, but "every time one of the big firms like UBS tinkers with the advisors' compensation, some of them say, that's it, that’s the last straw," recruiter Danny Sarch said.
"There's a big pull to alternative investments right now because of volatility of the stock market," Kevin Gannon, CEO of Robert A. Stanger & Co., said.
Last week's layoffs totaled at least 130 Cetera employees, according to a senior industry executive.
IFG works with 550 producing advisors and generates about $325 million in annual revenue, said Dave Fischer, the company's co-founder and chief marketing officer.
"It's like a soap opera," says one senior industry executive.
A company spokesperson called the layoffs a "small reduction in our workforce."
United Planners' costs related to lawsuits and regulators' actions into the advisor continue to rise.
