Advisor Group executives to hit the road this summer

Now that the sale of Advisor Group is in the bag, the management of the broker-dealer network will hit the road this summer, visiting to financial advisers in 20 cities to provide an update from CEO Jamie Price. Last month, Advisor Group said that private-equity firm Reverence Capital Partners had agreed to acquire 75% of the broker-dealer network from Lightyear Capital, PSP Investments and other investors. According to a memo sent to Advisor Group reps Tuesday, Mr. Price and other Advisor Group executives will hold the town hall-type meeting so advisers can get a general briefing from Mr. Price, as well as updates on Reg BI, enhancements to cybersecurity, improvements to unified managed accounts and other topics. Advisor Group will kick off the meetings in Atlanta on July 26, according to the memo. As part of the transaction, Advisor Group, in coordination with Reverence Capital, said last month that it expected to establish an adviser recognition and retention program, with details to be announced between signing and close. But there was no mention of any retention bonus for advisers in Tuesday's memo, noted one Advisor Group rep, who asked not to be named. Retention bonuses, sometimes called "stay bonuses" in the industry, are at times paid to brokers and financial advisers after a broker-dealer is acquired in order to ensure that advisers stay put for a period of years. "Nobody has told us about the deal," the adviser said. Mr. Price, in an email, wrote,"There is no better way to demonstrate that we are in our advisers' corner than taking the time to meet with them in small, intimate settings with our senior management to talk about their businesses, announce new programs to help them grow and serve clients even more effectively and discuss key trends in the industry." He added, "We look forward to announcing further details of these roadshows in the near future." The four broker-dealers in the Advisor Group network are: FSC Securities Corp., Royal Alliance Associates Inc., SagePoint Financial Inc. and Woodbury Financial. According to InvestmentNews data, the four combined to produce $1.7 billion in total revenue last year. InvestmentNews data show there were close to 11,800 total registered reps at the four firms at the end of last year, with 6,500 of those advisers producing revenues.