Royal Alliance lures adviser team managing $150M

A New York team with $150 million assets under management has been snagged by Royal Alliance Associates Inc.

Strategic Financial and Tax Planning, Inc. run by a family team of financial advisers, was recruited by the company. The team includes brothers Guy Nicosia and Gerard Nicosia, as well as Guy’s son, John Nicosia. In a statement, they cited Royal’s technology, marketing support and open-architecture platform as reasons for joining the independent broker-dealer.

Strategic has more than 2,000 clients and aims to grow further under the new company.

The deal was made as Royal Alliance hunts for new advisory talent. Royal Alliance has recruited close to $2.1 billion in assets under management so far this year and has a goal of gaining another $1.5 billion to $2 billion in 2014, said Kevin Beard, the company’s senior vice president of recruiting.

“This year, despite the difficult recruiting market, Royal has had some success,” he said. “We also have a very strong pipeline going into 2014.”

Mr. Beard said the current stability in the markets has made recruiting efforts more difficult, as retention is at an all-time high. Royal itself has a 98% retention rate among its advisers, he said.

To amplify its recruiting efforts, the company has taken to social media, even though “old-school” methods such as phone calls and being out in the field still remain some of the best techniques, Mr. Beard said. The success of recruiting next year will depend on market conditions, but he said reaching $1.5 billion in new AUM should be a manageable goal.

“The recruits that you’re finding are looking for long-term commitment, for succession planning,” he said, noting that Royal has also had some success in recruiting from wirehouses. “I do see some consolidation happening with smaller broker-dealers.”

Royal Alliance is one of four independent broker-dealers in the Advisor Group network, along with FSC Securities Corp., SagePoint Financial and Woodbury Financial Services. It had $42.7 billion in assets under management in 2012, according to its website.