Commonwealth scoops up three teams managing $1.25B

Commonwealth Financial Network of Waltham, Mass., picked up three large offices of reps and advisers who manage $1.25 billion in July, and the advisers are coming from two broker-dealer networks that are being shopped by the insurance companies that own them. Two of the offices are leaving FSC Securities Corp., one of the broker-dealers in AIG Advisor Group. That network of broker-dealers has been on the block for months, and just this week, two private-equity firms — Lightyear Capital LLC of New York and Lovell Minnick Partners LLC of El Segundo, Calif., and Philadelphia — emerged as the two final bidders for the network. Armstrong Fleming & Moore Inc. of Washington is the largest of the three new groups of advisers to become affiliated with Commonwealth. The firm oversaw $800 million in assets and generated fees and commissions of $3.4 million in 2008, according to a statement from the company. “When FSC was up for sale, we decided we should look at our alternatives rather than having our future determined for us,” Alexandra Armstrong, chairwoman of the firm, said in a statement. The other office leaving Atlanta-based FSC is BDS Financial Service Corp. of Solon, Ohio, which has $250 million in assets and produced $1 million in fees and commissions last year. Also joining Commonwealth this month is Muskat Financial of Simi Valley, Calif., which generated revenue of $2.1 million last year and oversees more than $200 million in assets. Muskat Financial was affiliated with Financial Network Investment Corp. of El Segundo, the largest broker-dealer in the ING Advisors Network Inc. In April, an ING spokesman confirmed that FNIC and two other ING broker-dealers be sold because they faced strategic review from the parent company, ING Groep NV of Amsterdam, Netherlands. In total, Commonwealth has about 1,200 financial advisers and registered reps who control about $40 billion in client assets.