Triad, an independent broker/dealer owned by Ladenburg Thalmann, has recruited Retirement Benefits Group, a retirement plan-focused advisory firm with over $10 billion in assets under administration. The firm is leaving Independent Financial Partners, currently an LPL Financial office of supervisory jurisdiction, gearing up to launch its own broker/dealer this spring.
Sean Ciemiewicz, principal of RBG, said IFP’s move presented an opportunity to “reassess” their situation.
“It gave us the opportunity to really take a look at different companies and what they had to offer,” he said. “It’s a very competitive marketplace, so we wanted to make sure we had all the right tools and services available to our advisors to allow them to do their business.
RBG will join Resources Investment Advisors, a retirement plan-focused hybrid registered investment advisory firm and office of supervisory jurisdiction on the Triad platform. Overland Park, Kan.-based Resources has 160 advisors across 48 offices around the country. The firm serves more than 2,100 corporate retirement plans with $36 billion in assets. It also has more than $3 billion in wealth management operations.
RBG, which serves over 580 total retirement plans across 68 advisors and staff, will bring Resources’ assets to over $49 billion.
IFP, a family-owned RIA and hybrid OSJ, currently on the LPL Financial platform, has been building out its technology stack in preparation to launch its own b/d. The firm recently chose BNY Mellon's Albridge to provide wealth reporting capabilities to its 500 advisors. In September, it announced contracts with Agreement Express, a client onboarding platform, Beam Solutions, with transaction monitoring compliance tools, and Xtiva, compensation management and reporting software. And in November, the firm said it was teaming with Advizr to provide financial planning services for 401(k) participants.