Cetera leadership issue could be settled within days

The CEO of Cetera Financial Group acknowledged in a memo that changes in leadership at the top of the broker-dealer network were being considered and may be settled "within a matter of days." In a memo to advisers on Monday, CEO Larry Roth said the company had been looking at its senior management structure since it emerged from bankruptcy in May. “We have been exploring certain potential future options for our leadership structure as we entered the post strategic transformation phase of development for our company,” according to the memo, which an industry source read to InvestmentNews. “We expect to be able to provide clarity on this within a matter of days.” Speculation about changes in senior management at Cetera Financial was ignited last Friday, when industry website RIABiz.com reported that Mr. Roth was out at Cetera Financial and Robert Moore, a former president of LPL Financial and Cetera's chairman, was in. Mr. Roth and Mr. Moore are both industry veterans and have both supporters and detractors in the industry. The former CEO of AIG Advisor Group, Mr. Roth in 2013 joined the former parent of Cetera Financial, RCS Capital Corp., which at the time was controlled by former nontraded REIT czar Nicholas Schorsch. Mr. Roth was initially tapped to lead RCAP's wholesaling broker-dealer, Realty Capital Securities, before taking over as CEO of Cetera Financial in May 2014 after the abrupt departure of its longtime CEO, Valerie Brown. Mr. Roth shepherded Cetera Financial through the bankruptcy this year of RCAP. In May, Cetera appointed Robert Moore as its chairman. Mr. Moore resigned as president of LPL Financial in March 2015 and is now CEO of Legal & General Investment Management America, an institutional money manager. Mr. Schorsch no longer has a role at Aretec, the successor to RCAP after it emerged from bankruptcy. The holding company is owned by financial institutions that owned RCAP notes.