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Todd Mackay

Practice Management > Building Your Business > Recruiting

Avantax Reports Recruiting Surge in 2022

By Jeff Berman

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What You Need to Know

  • Avantax, formerly Blucora, said recruited assets rose 79% from 2021.
  • The firm says it's experiencing strong recruiting as advisors look to meet demand for wealth management that integrates tax planning.
  • Avantax comprises a BD and an RIA that partners with CPAs.

Avantax announced strong growth in 2022 that it said Tuesday included 66 recruits in the fourth quarter, contributing to newly recruited assets of about $1.7 billion for the full year, up about 79% from 2021.

For all of 2022, Avantax attracted 258 recruits, according to Todd Mackay, president of Avantax Wealth Management, the firm’s independent broker-dealer division.

Giving Avantax an edge over many rivals in the financial services sector is its tax and financial professionals offering clients the “differentiated value of tax-advantaged wealth management,” according to Tim Stewart, vice president and head of business development for Avantax.

Clients, he said in a statement, are increasingly growing “frustrated by advisors offering limited services.”

Meanwhile, Avantax recruits “don’t want to be anonymous cogs in their broker-dealer’s machine,” he said. “They’re joining Avantax to be part of our community of like-minded, growth-oriented peers who collaborate and help elevate each other as they grow.”

Financial professionals are transferring to Avantax from various channels, including large BDs, RIAs and regional firms, the company said.

Independent financial professionals who became affiliated with Avantax in the fourth quarter included Kenneth S. Hamada, who the company said transferred his practice from Independent Financial Group.

Hamada has been an advisor and broker for four firms since joining the sector 24 years ago, according to his report on the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s BrokerCheck. He joined UBS in 1998, left to join LPL Financial in 2002, then joined IFG in 2014 and Avantax last year.

He selected Avantax to continue growing his practice’s assets and geographic presence with the support of Avantax.

“I chose Avantax because of their focus on the integration of tax planning with holistic wealth management,” Hamada said in a statement. “Our practice is dynamic, and we are looking for tools and a firm that could help us better manage client needs in this over-taxed world.”

Avantax also continued recruiting accounting firms to its employee-based model, Avantax Planning Partners, with the new affiliation of three large accounting firms, it said.

Avantax predicted a “continued strong pipeline of prospective accounting firm affiliates” this year.

Tax and accounting professionals entering wealth management for the first time are also selecting Avantax because they continue to see a need to obtain licensing and education so they can directly provide tax-advantaged financial planning and wealth management services instead of referring clients to a local banker or broker who may not view investments with tax implications in mind, the firm said.

Avantax Planning Partners offers services via its RIA and insurance agency by partnering with CPA firms to provide their consumer and small-business clients with holistic financial planning and advisory services.

The firm was known as Blucora until it sold TaxAct, its tax software business, to an affiliate of private equity firm Cinven for $720 million in cash. It announced the deal in November saying it would rebrand as Avantax after the transaction closed.

Collectively, the company had $76.9 billion in total client assets as of Dec. 31, it said.

(Pictured: Todd Mackay, president of Avantax Wealth Management)

Jeff Berman

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