LPL names president of Associated Securities

LPL Financial of Boston has tapped Allison Couch to be president of Associated Securities Corp., its El Segundo, Calif., subsidiary. Ms. Couch, who is currently affiliated with FSC Securities Corp. of Atlanta, was most recently the president and CEO of one of the country’s leading networks of financial advisers, the Financial Services Network of San Mateo, Calif. LPL, by far the biggest independent-contractor broker-dealer in the industry, said that the ”vast majority” of the 230 reps in the Financial Services Network were leaving to join Associated Securities, along with James Herrington, the network’s founder and chairman. That group generated more than $41 million in fees and commissions last year. However, like Ms. Couch, Mr. Herrington on Tuesday remained affiliated with FSC, one of the three broker-dealers in the AIG Advisor Group, which works with 7,000 advisers, and an AIG spokesman took issue with LPL’s assertion that the 230 advisers’ move to Associated Securities was final. “To suggest that a ‘vast majority’ of Jim Herrington’s advisers have left FSC is grossly misleading and inaccurate,” said John Pluhowski, the spokesman. He added that only one adviser has left so far, and that rep did not move to Associated Securities. The three broker-dealers in the AIG Advisor Group — FSC, Royal Alliance Associates Inc. of New York and AIG Financial Advisors Inc. of Phoenix — are all on the block. The parent company, American International Group Inc .of New York, has begun a massive sell-off of assets to repay an $85 billion federal government bailout that kept that company afloat as the credit crisis threatened it last month. LPL is confident the deal with The Financial Services Network will be a success. The “vast majority” of the advisers in the network have given their intent to join Associated Securities and are in the transition process right now, LPL spokesman Kevin Dinino said today. “The proof will be in the final outcome over the next few weeks.” Industry observers, however, question how the move of the Financial Services Network reps will shake out and how many will actually land at Associated Securities.