NPC’s new CEO aims to fill void in recruiting

NEW YORK — Inheriting a depleted recruiting staff, the new head of National Planning Corp. immediately will focus on rebuilding that team.
Last Monday, Santa Monica, Calif.-based NPC said that Scott Romine was replacing M. Shawn Dreffein as its CEO.
Ms. Dreffein, 51, said she was retiring and soon would turn her attention to Democratic politics and working for a candidate on the 2008 presidential election.
“I’m probably one of the few Democrats” in the financial services industry, she said with a laugh.
The same day Ms. Dreffein resigned, so did Bonnie Schab, the firm’s longtime head of recruiting. Industry observers noted that Ms. Dreffein and Ms. Schab, senior vice president of new business development, were longtime colleagues, having worked at NPC since it opened in 1998.
Another full-time recruiter, K.T. Faraday, first vice president of recruiting, recently had left the firm.

‘A great talent pool’
Mr. Romine, formerly senior vice president for the regional broker-dealer channel at Jackson National Life Insurance Co. of Lansing, Mich., which owns NPC and three other independent-contractor
broker-dealers, said that filling Ms. Schab’s position was a “priority.”
“We have a great talent pool in-house,” he said. “We’re also obligated to look outside.”
NPC now has three full-time recruiters on its staff, Mr. Romine said.
Ms. Dreffein, who also is retiring as president and CEO of Santa Monica-based National Planning Holdings Inc., said she will remain with the broker-dealer network as it searches for her replacement.
The timing of the departures of Ms. Dreffein, Ms. Schab and Ms. Faraday caused some in the industry to question the reason behind Ms. Dreffein’s retirement.
NPH has raised eyebrows in the independent-contractor broker-dealer industry, because of its aggressive recruiting package, which tops out at offering 42.5% of an adviser’s prior 12 months fees and commissions to join.
Indeed, NPH recently was caught in a struggle between Jackson National and LPL Financial Services of San Diego and Boston because of NPH’s aggressive pursuit of reps and advisers whose firms LPL is acquiring (InvestmentNews, May 14).
In March, LPL said that it was acquiring three broker-dealers owned by Pacific Life Insurance Co. of Newport Beach, Calif.
LPL reportedly warned Jackson National that if NPH didn’t back away from the Pacific Life advisers, the parent company could face having its insurance products pulled from LPL’s shelves.
“I think [Ms. Dreffein’s leaving] is connected to the LPL situation,” said one industry observer, who asked not to be identified.
NPC recently had a number of high-production brokers and advisers affiliated with the Pacific Life broker-dealers in its pipeline, the observer said.
Ms. Dreffein stressed that the recent dispute between LPL and Jackson National had nothing at all to do with her leaving.
“This is strictly a personal decision,” she said. It was time to leave NPC and the NPH network, because they had achieved the “vision” she had when the network launched, Ms. Dreffein added.
The chief parts of the initial vision were the close culture and the commitment to technology, Ms. Dreffein said.
“Everything we talked about in the early days has been delivered,” she said. “I’ve had the best job in the financial services industry.”
Last year, National Planning Holdings, which also includes INVEST Financial Corp. of Tampa, Fla., Investment Centers of America Inc. of Bismarck, N.D., and SII Investments Inc. of Appleton, Wis., reported $492.7 million in gross revenue.
It ranked third among broker-dealer networks owned by insurance companies and seventh overall. NPH has about 2,600
affiliated registered reps and advisers.