Securities America, NorthStar Financial unveil RIA

Securities America Inc. and NorthStar Financial Services Group LLC have officially rolled out a jointly owned RIA firm designed for use by midsize hybrid advisers. The new RIA firm, Arbor Point Advisors LLC, will serve as a corporate RIA for advisers who may also do securities business at Securities America but who want a choice of custodians for their advisory assets, the firms said in a joint statement yesterday. Arbor Point is targeting hybrids with $50 million to $250 million in assets who want to work with one of the major custodial firms, said Curtis Reed, president of the firm. The company is working with TD Ameritrade Institutional, Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services, Schwab Advisor Services and Pershing Advisor Solutions, said Jim Nagengast, chief executive of Securities America. “With this solution, advisers can now use an outside custodian, but they don't have to form their own RIA,” he said. The new model “supports an adviser going fee-only,” Mr. Nagengast added. “Some of the models [from independent broker-dealers] out there aren't built to support a transition to fee-only. This is built to encourage that.” Advisers get a full payout on advisory fees, Mr. Curtis said, and pay up to 0.25% of their management fee to Arbor Point for the support offered by the platform. NorthStar, the parent company of technology provider Orion Advisor Services LLC, is a minority shareholder in Arbor Point. Securities America is the majority owner. Arbor Point will use Orion technology for new account processing, data reconciliation, performance reporting, fee calculation and billing, and portfolio modeling and trading. The advisory firm has been registered with the SEC since September, but as of Wednesday reported no assets or clients. “We do have a handful of clients on the platform, and a very active pipeline,” Mr. Reed said. “It's not a start-up,” Mr. Nagengast added. “We have 400 employees here” at Securities America and “400 employees at NorthStar” to support Arbor Point.