Former head of Osaic B-D lands at AssetMark

Desiree Sii, until recently the CEO and president of Osaic Services Inc., which formerly was known as SagePoint Financial Inc., is joining AssetMark Financial Holdings Inc., the turnkey asset management platform, as vice president, head of strategic accounts.

Sii is the latest in a line of senior broker-dealer executives who leave one high-profile job for another. Jim Dickson, the former CEO of Sanctuary Wealth, this week said he was launching a growth-focused wealth management firm, Elevation Point.

"Having relationships with financial advisors is one of the greatest assets these senior executives possess," said a senior industry official, who asked to speak confidentially to InvestmentNews. "People like that are in high demand."

Sii announced her new role in a post on LinkedIn. "I am excited to announce I have joined AssetMark," she wrote. "AssetMark is a leading provider of comprehensive wealth management and technology solutions, dedicated to empowering financial advisors and their clients. I am honored to join such a forward-thinking organization."

She did not respond Thursday morning to a message seeking further comment.

Sii became head of SagePoint in February 2021, taking over for industry veteran Jeff Auld, who retired. She had been at various Osaic-controlled firms 2003, with a few months at Charles Schwab in 2014 and 2015.

Over that time, Osaic was known as AIG Advisor Group and owned by the giant insurer American International Group Inc., which sold the network in 2016 to private equity manager Lightyear Capital and was renamed Advisor Group. Another private equity investor, Reverence Capital, bought it in 2019 and last year renamed it, again, this time Osaic.

It’s not clear why Sii left Osaic.

Osaic is a giant network of 11,600 financial advisors, a third of whom are women, with $635 billion in assets, according to the company’s website. Since it changed its name, the company has also been consolidating the operations of its various broker-dealers, a way to curb costs as the company marches to a widely anticipated initial public offering.

Greg Cornick, president of advice and wealth management, is now also CEO of two of the rebranded broker-dealers, Osaic Wealth Inc. and Osaic Services, where Sii had been chief executive. Another CEO of an Osaic firm, Jim Nagengast, in January said he was leaving Securities America Inc., where he had worked for almost 30 years.