Advisor Group Added $1B in Wealth Assets in May, a Record

What You Need to Know

Advisor Group’s Wealth Management Platform had inflows of more than $1 billion in net new assets for the first time last month.
The firm added at least $4.8 billion in NNA through the first five months of this year, up from about $1.4 billion last year.
Allison Pratt is stepping down as EVP of national sales in August after seven years at the company and nearly 35 years in the sector.

Advisor Group’s wealth management platform (WMP) had inflows of more than $1 billion in net new assets (NNA) for the first time last month, the company said Tuesday.

The platform also cumulatively added at least $4.8 billion in NNA through the first five months of this year, up from about $1.4 billion in the same period of 2020, Advisor Group said.

Female financial professionals “contributed proportionately” to the increase and were responsible for almost 20% of the record growth, the firm said.

The figures included asset growth at FSC Securities, Royal Alliance, SagePoint and Woodbury, the four firms that made up the Advisor Group network before the finalization of its acquisition of Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Services, including Securities America and Triad Advisors, in February 2020.

Advisor Group projected that monthly NNA totals will “continue to grow significantly going forward, as asset reporting for the former Ladenburg firms is harmonized with Advisor Group’s legacy firms and their NNA metrics are included in the firm’s enterprise-wide totals,” it said.

Continued strong recruiting is also expected to fuel further growth in NNA inflows, according to the company. (NNA encompasses accounts of clients that are moved to WMP, as well as assets added via recruitment of new financial professionals and M&A activity, net of attrition. WMP includes Genesis model portfolios, separately managed Accounts, unified managed accounts and advisor managed portfolios.)

15th W Forum Under Way

The announcement was made one day before the start of Advisor Group’s 15th annual W Forum conference for female financial professionals, associates and home-office employees, a virtual event this year that runs through Friday.

More than 1,000 participants associated with Advisor Group’s six subsidiary firms were expected to join the event, which is themed “The Path,” with a focus on supporting female financial professionals in defining their visions of success in life and in their careers while helping them chart a road map to achieve their goals.

W Forum is a key component of Advisor Group’s Women Forward Initiative that offers a year-round series of career enrichment and networking opportunities, along with mentorship and development resources to support female financial professionals.

This year’s W Forum is the first to combine elements of Advisor Group’s Women Forward initiative and the Ladenburg Institute of Women and Finance, Ladenburg Thalmann’s former network-wide program supporting growth for female financial professionals.

Exec Retirement

Advisor Group also announced the retirement of Allison Pratt, executive vice president, national sales, after an almost 35-year career in the independent wealth management industry, including the past seven years at Advisor Group.

Pratt’s decision to retire followed family health matters and her desire to prioritize family, the company said. She will continue to serve in her current role until Aug. 6.

She has played a key role in Advisor Group’s success as the head of its national sales organization, which includes investment advisory services, retirement plan consulting services, insurance consulting services, advanced planning, product sales support, business coaching and consulting services, and strategic partner relations, the firm said. As part of her role, she has overseen Advisor Group’s WMP since 2016.

The company’s “focus on positioning all of our financial professionals for success in the fiduciary era is mirrored by our commitment to building a stronger industry overall that reflects the diversity of our broader society,” she said in a statement. “Growing the ranks of women financial professionals across our firms is an indispensable part of Advisor Group’s overall success story.”

The progress that has been made in “lifting women in the wealth management space has been one of the proudest accomplishments of my professional life,” she noted, adding: “As I step away from a rewarding and fulfilling career, I am gratified to know that Advisor Group is in the strongest position in its history, and I look forward to an even brighter future for women in our industry in the years ahead.”

Price thanked Pratt for her many contributions to Advisor Group. “The strength of our Wealth Management Platform, combined with our ongoing investments in growth resources for our financial professionals, make Advisor Group extremely well-positioned to continue to lead in the independent wealth management space,” he said in a statement.

Advisor Group now has 10,100 financial professionals who oversee more than $475 billion in client assets.