Cetera Says It's on a $19B Growth Tear
The broker-dealer network, thanks to its Foresters deal and other factors, has picked up roughly 1,000 advisors.
Cetera Financial Group says it has added over 1,000 registered representatives with $19.1 billion in assets under administration this year, including about 400 advisors added through its acqusition of Foresters Financial.
According to Cetera President Adam Antoniades, “a good percentage” of the 1,000 are tax professionals, affiliates of financial institutions like banks and newly trained advisors. “Next gen is a very big focus of our organization and a necessary one,” he said in an interview, as are other “new entrants” into the financial advice profession.
The firm also says its current growth spurt is tied a new branch-office affiliation model that it acquired as part of its Foresters Financial deal, Cetera Investors, which is marketed as Cetera Investment Services.
Cetera’s deal with Foresters, first announced in April, has helped it add roughly 400 of the group’s 500 advisors. There is some discrepancy in the 500 figure, Antoniades says, due to “population methodology” issues such as including assistants or associates in the total.
“But we have realized 95% of the assets,” the executive explained, “and we derive revenues from assets not headcount.”
The broker-dealer network that makes up Cetera includes Cetera Advisors, Cetera Advisor Networks, Cetera Investment Services (marketed as Cetera Financial Institutions), Cetera Financial Specialists, First Allied Securities and Summit Brokerage Services (set to become part of Cetera Advisor Networks).
“It’s been a record year for us,” Antoniades explained, “and more and more, our new advisors are seeing the value of our platform.”