Beacon Pointe ramps up recruiting, targets wirehouse refugees

Beacon Pointe Advisors of Newport Beach, Calif., a wealth management firm with $4 billion in assets that caters to high-net-worth individuals, is looking to bolster its business with wirehouse castoffs. The firm announced today the launch of Beacon Pointe Wealth Advisors LLC, a unit that will target wirehouse reps with $35 million to $70 million in assets. “That [asset level] is where the big disconnect is” at the big brokerage firms, said Matthew Cooper, president of Beacon Point Wealth Advisors. Brokers at that level, he added, get little in the way of retention packages, payouts and attractive offers from other wirehouses. Beacon also hopes to bring on some smaller existing advisory firms, as well as people looking to transition out of the business. New recruits would work as employees, with most expenses and half of their benefits covered, Mr. Cooper said, while earning a 50% to 75% payout. Beacon Pointe Wealth Advisors' hybrid model, which uses Purshe Kaplan Sterling Investments of Albany, N.Y., as its broker-dealer, will allow recruits to maintain commission business, Mr. Cooper said. His goal is to land two or three recruits by yearend and up to a dozen next year. “It's a way to scale our existing business” of researching and recommending boutique investment managers, Mr. Cooper said.