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Does the MetLife Deal Signal the End of the Insurance Agent?

16:13 01 March in In the News by rafferty

February 29, 2016 By Diana Britton, Wealth Management   MetLife said goodbye to its insurance agents this week, with the announcement to sell its Premier Client Group to MassMutual for about $300 million. The move could lead other insurers to divest their captive broker/dealers, as they focus their product distribution elsewhere. “We could see more insurance broker/dealers go by the wayside, while those companies really concentrate on their core competency in manufacturing those policies and annuities,” said Bill Butterfield, senior analyst of the wealth management team at Aite Group. Many insurers have shed their independent b/ds over the years—AIG being the most recent. In April 2013, MetLife sold its independent b/ds, Tower Square and Walnut Street Securities, to Cetera for an undisclosed sum. But perhaps a newer trend is for firms to divest their captive b/ds, begging the question, who...

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DOL Fiduciary Rule Will Accelerate Broker-Dealer Closings

16:55 22 February in Articles Written by Jon Henschen by rafferty

February 22, 2016 By Jon Henschen, as featured on ThinkAdvisor and FSI NewsBrief   Since 2008, we’ve seen a steep and consistent drop in the number of broker-dealers. As reported by data aggregator Fishbowl Strategies, we were down to 4,578 BDs in 2010. By February of 2014, that number was down to 4,181. We ended 2015 with 4,034 broker-dealers, with the largest segment of firms closing by far being equity trading firms. September 2015 turned out to be a false flag of hope where we had 14 new firms admitted and only 5 firms withdrew. Nevertheless, fourth quarter results continued the downward trend. Looking at the fourth quarter of 2015, we had 16 new firms that were admitted and 53 firms that withdrew. Of the 53 that withdrew, 32 were equity trading firms, 12 were private...

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RCS Capital Files for Bankruptcy; Cetera to Use $50M for Retention

18:21 02 February in In the News by rafferty

February 1, 2016 by Janet Levaux, ThinkAdvisor   The parent company of the Cetera Financial Group of independent broker-dealers, RCS Capital (RCAP), filed for bankruptcy protection in Delaware on Sunday as expected, and Cetera plans to spend some $50 million on programs to retain the roughly 9,000 independent advisors affiliated with its network of  broker-dealers who are eligible for such funding, court filings show. New York-based RCS Capital has close to $2 billion in assets and roughly $1.4 billion in debts, according to a Bloomberg report. The company’s unsecured creditors include Wilmington Savings Fund Society and Proskauer Rose LLP of New York. In early January, RCS Capital said it had obtained $150 million to restructure its finances from a group of key investors. Also, private equity firms Carlyle Investment Management and Fortress Investment Group, along with asset...