AIG’s broker-dealer network loses another star rep

The former AIG Advisor Group of broker-dealers has lost another top-producing adviser.
Erin Botsford resigned from FSC Securities Corp. last week and joined DeWaay Financial Network LLC, a small, little-known independent broker-dealer based in Clive, Iowa.
Ms. Botsford joined FSC Securities in 2006 from Lincoln Financial Advisors Corp. to much fanfare. At the time, she was Lincoln Financial’s top-producing adviser, with $3 million in fees and commissions.
At FSC, Ms. Botsford, who is president of The Botsford Group, was also the firm’s No. 1 adviser, said Kay Lynn Mayhue, Botsford Financial’s vice president. The firm has combined advisory and brokerage assets under management of $750 million, Ms. Mayhue said.
(See how Ms. Botsford’s move compares to other advisers who have recently changed firms here.)
Ms. Botsford, whose firm is known for its focus on risk management, was not available Tuesday to comment on her decision to leave FSC and join the relatively obscure DeWaay.
Donald DeWaay Jr., president and chairman of DeWaay Financial, was also not available Tuesday to comment.
The AIG broker-dealer network, now called Advisor Group, has three broker-dealers: FSC, Royal Alliance Associates Inc. and SagePoint Financial Inc.
The network was hit hard during the market downturn. Rival firms used the federal government’s bailout of American International Group Inc., the broker-dealer network’s parent company, to persuade brokers to move.
Declines in gross revenue at the three Advisor Group broker-dealers in 2009 were far greater than the industry average of slightly more than 10%.
At SagePoint Financial, the firm’s gross revenue dropped 38.5% to $227.3 million, compared with a year earlier.
FSC saw its gross revenue drop 29.2% to $229.1 million, and Royal Alliance, the biggest of the three, saw its gross revenue decline roughly 29% to $317.5 million.
SagePoint Financial in February saw its largest branch of reps and advisers walk out the door following a bitter dispute over the branch’s role and future at SagePoint. That branch, Regal Financial Group LLC, has about 100 advisers and generated $9 million in fees and commissions last year.
Last fall, two long-established advisers left Royal Alliance, citing mistrust of management after AIG’s top executive elected to hold on to — rather than sell — the broker-dealer network.
The advisers, Joe Chornyak and James Warren, each had spent more than 20 years with Royal Alliance and its predecessor firm, Integrated Resources.
Executives at Advisor Group have stressed that the rate of advisers and brokers leaving has slowed down of late. Linda Skolnick, a spokeswoman for Advisor Group, did not return calls seeking comment.

Related Topics: Advisers On The Move, American International Group (AIG)