Lerner's former associate targeting wirehouse advisers

Cabot Lodge Securities, a new wealth management firm looking to recruit wirehouse advisers, has opened up three offices in the New York City area and plans to open a fourth in Boca Raton, Fla., in early May. The firm, led by Albert Ackerman, a former chief compliance officer for David Lerner Associates Inc., already has 20 advisers working for the firm — more than half of whom came from wirehouses, according to national sales manager Stephen Rooney. “Our target is to have between 100 and 125 advisers by the end of the year,” said Mr. Rooney, who also spent five years at David Lerner as a sales manager. Cabot has three people focused on recruiting advisers from Wall Street firms. “We'll be recruiting from the wirehouses because there are a lot of unhappy people there,” Mr. Rooney said. Those who sign on can expect a higher payout and an ownership stake in the new firm, he said. Cabot plans to have advisers own 49% of the firm with their stakes based on their first five years of production at the firm. “We're not looking for employees but partners,” Mr. Rooney said. The firm plans to have proprietary products on its platform, including private placements, including real estate syndications, tax credit programs, oil and gas programs, as well as publicly traded and nontraded real estate investment trusts, according to the firm's website. Cabot Lodge is affiliated with registered investment adviser Allied Beacon Partners Inc., which also serves as the firm's broker-dealer. But according to Cabot's website, it is "not controlled by or a subsidiary of Allied Beacon Partners Inc." Mr. Rooney said investors in the firm preferred to remain anonymous. Both Mr. Rooney and Mr. Ackerman had extensive experience with real estate investments at David Lerner. The company sold nearly $6.8 billion of nontraded REIT securities to more than 120,000 customer accounts, beginning in 1992, according to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. Mr. Ackerman, who spent more than four years at David Lerner as chief compliance officer, currently runs a compliance consulting firm and serves as an executive vice president of United Realty Partners. The real estate advisory firm shares its Manhattan office with Cabot Lodge.