GunnAllen's top-producers bolt for a new broker-dealer

The biggest-producing branch of dead-in-the water GunnAllen Financial Inc. is heading to a new independent broker-dealer, Aegis Capital Corp. Located at 40 Wall Street in Manhattan, the branch — run by Raffaele Gambardella and Phil Michals — is in the process of moving roughly 70 brokers to Aegis. Sources estimate that the branch has between $250 million to $500 million in assets under management. The branch, which does business as RG Michals Holdings Inc., produced between $10 million and $12 million per year in fees and commissions while at GunnAllen, according to industry sources. “It was the largest branch office complex at GunnAllen,” said David Levine, executive vice president at GunnAllen. On Monday, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. shut down GunnAllen because it failed to meet its net-capital requirements. One of the biggest problems facing the 400 or so reps and advisers who remain at the company is finding an independent broker-dealer that uses its clearing firm, Ridge Clearing and Outsourcing Solutions Inc. Only a handful of firms have access to Ridge, including J.P. Turner & Co. LLC, Aegis Capital and Lombard Securities Inc. Aegis CEO Robert Eide did not return a phone call today to comment. Mr. Gambardella was not available to comment.