Advisors, Are You Ready to Sell Insurance?

Traditional Products Are Transforming, Papike On Consolidation, Recruitment News, A Regulatory Conference Guide, Morningstar’s Conference, COMPLY’s Playbook, Advisor Group’s Rebrand, Nesvold’s New Role And Coldstream Hires Matt Sonnen As COO

To My Fellow WSR Community Members:

If I ask you to name another financial industry outside of wealth management, you’ll probably think first of a banking service such as lending, consumer deposits, securities underwriting or payments processing. But insurance is perhaps the closest industry to our own – a similarly-situated arena that parallels ours in many ways with unique regulatory regimes and licensed professionals who serve individual client needs – and this industry is converging with ours.

The convergence of insurance and wealth management is not new to ultra-high net worth investors who for some decades have taken advantage of both to create holistic, multi-generational financial plans, but the former small niche is burgeoning as it reaches new clients and streamlines in technology and strategy.

This week we bring you the thoughts of a private equity executive on this convergence and a story describing how traditional products are undergoing transformation, including insurance and annuities, as well as TAMPs, alts and income generation.

In addition, we discuss the double-edged sword of consolidation, bring you latest recruitment news, guide you through regulatory and compliance conferences, cover the top takeaways from Morningstar’s Investment Conference, explore the hiring of a new wealth management COO and a family office President, recap a compliance officer’s 2023 playbook and bring you a large industry player’s simplification and rebrand.

This Week’s Issue

Here’s what we have for you this week:

• What are the hottest deals in the industry? In Newsmakers & Roundups, this edition of the Weekly Recruitment Roundup covers RBC Wealth Management recruiting two advisors from First Republic Bank, Wealth Enhancement Group acquiring New Era Financial Advisors, Seven Mile Advisory partnering with tru Independence, Precedent Wealth Partners launching on Dynasty’s Network and CI Financial agreeing to sell its stake in Congress Wealth Management to Audax Private Equity.

• How can advisors and clients benefit from the convergence of insurance and wealth management? In Upmarket, Edward Shahnasarian, Managing Director at THL Partners, explains why holistic wealth planning and insurance are converging; the role of technology; how clients, advisors and insurance agents benefit; and the experiences of his portfolio companies, Hightower and AmeriLife.

• How can compliance officers keep up with an ardent SEC? In Beltway and Beyond, regtech firm COMPLY publishes its latest annual Chief Compliance Officer Playbook, covering SEC rules and cases in 2022, SEC and FINRA outlooks for 2023, compliance trends and ways CCOs can prepare for the active regulatory landscape. Chief Regulatory Officer John Gebauer and CEO Amy Kadomatsu provide comments.

• Who’s the new executive at Coldstream Wealth Management? In Newsmakers & Roundups, we cover the Seattle-based firm hiring former RIA consultancy CEO and seasoned operations leader Matt Sonnen as Chief Operating Officer. In addition to driving growth and expansion initiatives, his duties include standardizing and optimizing back-office operations for RIA partners that have joined, as well as streamlining the onboarding of future M&A partners.

• Liz Nesvold has taken the helm as Cresset’s President alongside the firm’s Founders and Co-Chairmen, Avy Stein and Eric Becker, in Newsmakers & Roundups. The former Raymond James executive and Silver Lane founder will oversee the platform, strategy and family office services of the over $30 billion firm.

In case you missed it, last week we brought you:

• WSR Deputy Managing Editor Chris Latham shares his top five takeaways from the Morningstar Investment Conference in Chicago. In Upmarket, he highlights virtual advising by Derek Notman of Couplr and Intrepid Wealth Partners, advisor-friendly asset management with Robert Schlegel of Clark Capital Management Group, ESG skepticism from Aswath Damodaran of NYU Stern School of Business, investment ideas for advisors from Morningstar’s Marta Norton and Michael Laughlin, as well as a new AI named “Mo.”

• In Words In Edgewise, our Q&A with Jodie Papike, President of Cross-Search, an Encinitas, California-based advisor recruiting and executive placement firm operating nationwide for the wealth management space, explores her insights on the evolution of the firm, the potential double-edged sword of consolidation for advisors, and best practices for how advisors and firms respectively can succeed in their differing recruitment goals.
  

• Not sure which of the seemingly endless wealth management industry conferences you should attend? That’s why WSR launched our Guide To Industry Conferences! In Beltway and Beyond, our latest entry – on Compliance, Governance and Regulatory – covers the FINRA Annual Conference, the ComplyConnect Conference & Expo, the MarketCounsel Summit as well as the FSI Forum & Capitol Hill Day and FSI OneVoice.

• Investment solutions providers are under greater pressure than ever to transform traditional products with new strategies and technologies. In Investment Solutions & Gatekeepers, we review TAMPs, alts, annuities, income generation and more with Andy Kalbaugh, Founder and Managing Partner of Cassique Strategies; Mark Healy, CEO of FusionIQ; Steven Brod, CEO and CIO of Crystal Capital Partners; Jennifer Griffin, Head of Advisor Distribution at Pacific Life; and Dave Scranton, Founder and CEO of Sound Income Group.

• In Upmarket, massive change is underway for industry heavyweight Advisor Group, which announced it will simplify its organization and comprehensively rebrand, with no client repapering necessary. CEO Jamie Price and Debra Brennan-Tagg, President of BFS Advisory Group and Chair of the National Advisory Board for Advisor Group, provide comments.

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Have a great week!

Cheers!

Larry Roth, CEO
Wealth Solutions Report