‘RJ’ Moore Is Back in LPL Orbit
Moore, a former president of LPL and ex-Cetera CEO, is now the chief of LPL's biggest affiliated RIA.
Robert “RJ” Moore, a former top executive of LPL Financial and Cetera Financial Group, has been named CEO of Morristown, New Jersey-based Private Advisor Group, LPL Financial’s largest affiliated hybrid RIA, with more than 650 advisors in 38 states and more than $21 billion in assets under management.
The appointment represents a return to the industry for Moore, who stepped down as CEO of Cetera for health reasons in early 2019 after joining that firm in 2016. Before that, he was president of LPL from 2012 to 2015 and its chief financial officer from 2008 to 2012.
Moore will also “acquire a significant equity stake” in PAG, the firm said without disclosing the financial terms of the anticipated investment.
PAG co-founders, lead shareholders and advisors John Hyland and Pat Sullivan will continue as key members of the firm’s senior executive leadership team. The firm did not have a formal CEO position until now.
The addition of Moore follows the appointments of Jim Hooks as chief compliance officer and Berta Aldrich as chief marketing officer last year.
Moore’s initial priority will be to build upon PAG’s array of strategic relationships with LPL, Fidelity, Schwab and Pershing, according to PAG. He will also “continue to leverage PAG’s … compliance software and technology platform to accelerate the firm’s growth trajectory,” it said.
“I’ve been a long-time admirer of Private Advisor Group,” Moore told ThinkAdvisor, noting he feels good health-wise now and adding: “I’m a champion of advisors, believe passionately about the independent model and I also am really drawn towards the opportunity to get that much more immersed with advisors themselves and build that bridge to the future that we all know is rapidly being built.”
Explaining why Hyland and Sullivan felt Moore was the right person to lead PAG as it continues to try to take advantage of growth opportunities, Sullivan told ThinkAdvisor that Moore “knows this industry in and out” and was “someone who we’ve known for a decade or more from his days at LPL.”
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