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Advisor Group’s Royal Alliance Associates has completed one of the largest deals in the independent broker-dealer space this year, retaining 95% of production from John Hancock’s Signator Investors.
The Lightyear Capital-backed network added 1,860 advisors and 93% of Signator’s roughly $50 billion in assets under administration in closing the deal with Hancock parent Manulife on Nov. 2, according to the firms. Advisor Group retained 96% of the shuttering No. 16 IBD’s 1,933 advisors.
Other than one major ex-Signator team snagged by LPL Financial, none of Advisor Group’s rivals announced new additions from the IBD absorbed by Royal Alliance. Only three advisors out of a sampling of about three dozen top advisors mentioned in Signator press releases in the past two years chose other firms.
Advisor Group CEO Jamie Price cited “cultural alignment” between Royal Alliance and Signator while announcing the deal in late June. As a comparison, LPL kept less than 72% of production and only about 1,850 advisors out of the 3,200 from National Planning Holdings after acquiring the assets of the network last year.
Experts had also cited Signator and Royal Alliance's identical clearing firms of Pershing and Fidelity’s National Financial Services and similar office of supervisory jurisdiction structures as helpful for retention....