Omaha, Neb.-based Securities America, an independent broker/dealer owned by Advisor Group, has restructured its supervision department, according to a memo obtained by WealthManagement.com. As part of the revamp, the department has been renamed “field supervision,” and the firm has promoted Steve Palmer, a first vice president of sales supervision, to lead the department.
Palmer will report to Brett Baker, senior vice president of field supervision across all of Advisor Group, which includes Securities America, FSC Securities, Royal Alliance, SagePoint Financial, Triad Advisors and Woodbury Financial. Baker most recently served as chief of staff for Advisor Group.
Greg Smith, senior vice president of supervision and member of Securities America’s executive leadership team, has left the company after nearly a decade. Paul Krause, regional director of sales supervision, also departed.
The field supervision department will now be made up of four home-office regions, led by deputy directors, including Toni Michel, Chris Quarles, Mark Scott and Jeremy Girard. Each deputy director will have five regional sales supervision principals reporting to them.
The firm also announced that Advisor Group’s supervision teams, including advertising supervision, central supervision, sales supervision and supervision controls, would now be supporting Securities America’s home-office staff and offices of supervisory jurisdiction.
Securities America was previously owned by Ladenburg Thalmann, which was acquired by Advisor Group in 2019. After the deal was complete, Advisor Group folded three Ladenburg b/ds, Investacorp, Securities Service Network (SSN) and KMS Financial Services, into Securities America.
“Since Advisor Group’s merger with Ladenburg Thalmann, we have designed our combined organization from the ground up, with open jobs having been filled on a 50-50 basis between the best and brightest employees from Ladenburg, and equally high caliber employees from our pre-existing firms,” said Greg Cornick, president of advice and wealth management at Advisor Group. “As with any sizable merger, certain organizational adjustments are inevitable and expected.”
“We are extremely confident in the team we have in place from both the former Ladenburg firms and pre-existing Advisor Group firms, which provides continuity of culture and service to financial advisors, and creates a shared vision of the future of our industry.”
Since the merger, both Securities America and Advisor Group have seen some leadership shuffling at the top.
Paul Lofties, senior vice president of wealth management for Securities America and its former parent company Ladenburg Thalmann, left the firm in December of last year. He plans to join a wealth management coaching and consulting firm.
Last March, Advisor Group announced a series of high-level hires, including Cornick, who came over from LPL Financial. Matthew Schlueter was appointed president, products and platforms to oversee the firm’s investment banking services, Ladenburg Thalmann Asset Management, its trust department through Premier Trust and Highland Capital Brokerage, the firm’s insurance brokerage business.
Also at that time, Securities America’s head of branch office development, Gregg Johnson, was promoted to executive vice president of recruiting and revenue acquisition. But Johnson recently left the firm, and Kristen Kimmell, former head of advisor recruiting and field marketing at RBC, was tapped to take on his responsibilities, in addition to an expanded role.
Kirk Hulett, who oversees the practice management group at Securities America, was recently promoted to the role of head of practice management for Advisor Group. And earlier this year, Erinn Ford, the former CEO of Advisor Group subsidiary KMS Financial and former president of Cetera Advisors, was promoted to executive vice president of advisor engagement at Advisor Group, a newly created role to help drive growth and service for advisors.
In June, Securities America also announced that veteran Janine Wertheim, who most recently served as president of Securities America Advisors, one of two RIA entities within the firm, will retire at the end of this month after more than 37 years with the company.