Cetera snags $2.4 billion team from MassMutual

Cetera Financial Group said on Wednesday it had recruited a large team in Texas with $2.4 billion in wealth management assets.

Called Totus Wealth Management and led by its CEO James Starnes, the group had been registered until the end of last month with MML Investors Services, the broker-dealer arm of MassMutual, the insurance company.

According to BrokerCheck, Starnes is a 20-year veteran of the industry and was registered with MML from March 2017 through last month. He is now registered with Cetera Advisors.

2021 is turning into a red-hot recruiting year for the brokerage industry. More than 4,000 advisers and brokers switched firms in the first quarter of the year, putting 2021 on pace for record industry recruitment activity, according to InvestmentNews research.

Totus is Latin for "the whole or total" and inspires the firm’s approach to client service, Cetera said in a statement. 

Starnes will be joined by a team of six producing financial professionals and four support staff with plans for immediate growth. The firm is located in Houston and has offices in Woodlands, Texas, and plans to expand, the company said.

Last month, Cetera said it had recruited The Advisors, a hybrid team based in Murrysville, Pennsylvania that manages $340 million in assets, from LPL Financial.