Stifel seals deal for B.Riley advisors, adding $4B in AUM

Stifel Financial has completed its acquisition of 36 financial advisors from B. Riley Financial, adding roughly $4 billion in client assets to its growing wealth management business.

The employee advisors, previously part of B. Riley’s W-2 channel, have officially joined Stifel’s platform.

Details of the deal were confirmed late last year, with sources placing the transaction’s value between $27 million and $35 million in cash – far below earlier speculations of a $100 million deal assuming B. Riley's indepedent advisors would be included.

“We are very excited to welcome our new colleagues from B. Riley,” Ronald Kruszewski, chairman and chief executive officer of Stifel, said in a statement.

The addition bolsters Stifel’s ongoing advisor recruitment efforts and underscores its continued investment in employee-based brokerage talent. According to its latest earnings report covering the fiscal year 2024, the firm brought in 100 financial advisors, including 34 experienced employee reps and 12 seasoned independents. Eight of those hires came in the fourth quarter, among them four employee advisors with a combined trailing 12-month production of $8 million.

Stifel’s wealth management segment reported record revenue of $3.3 billion for the year, with client assets reaching $501.4 billion as of the fourth quarter – a 13 percent increase from the year before. Fee-based client assets also rose 17 percent year over year to $192.7 billion.

The company was recently ranked highest in overall employee advisor satisfaction for the second consecutive year in the J.D. Power US Financial Advisor Satisfaction Study.

B. Riley, for its part, continues to manage a significant number of independent advisors and has maintained that portion of its business despite the sale. Industry observers noted that employees often generate more revenue per head for broker-dealers compared to independent contractors, a factor that may have driven Stifel’s interest.

“It’s a profitable part of the company and they will still have the expenses of maintaining the independent contractor business,” a senior executive familiar with the matter told InvestmentNews in November.

Since last year, B. Riley has been navigating a series of financial and regulatory headwinds stemming from its failed investment in Franchise Resource Group.

On April 3, it received a delinquency notice from Nasdaq due to a delay in filing its 2024 annual report. The company has until June 2 to submit a compliance plan and could receive an extension until late September if the plan is accepted.

Amid those issues, B. Riley is taking steps to whittle down its outstanding debt. Over the past weeks, it has announced two private bond exchange agreements, cutting total outstanding debt by approximately $47 million. The firm swapped a combined $145 million in senior notes for $98 million in newly issued second-lien notes carrying an 8 percent interest rate and maturing in 2028.

“We continue to thoughtfully evaluate ways to improve the Company's balance sheet and expect there will be opportunities to conduct additional transactions,” said Bryant Riley, chairman and co-chief executive officer of B. Riley.