The Holidays will Come Late for Some BrokerDealers this Year

BrokerDealer.com blog update courtesy of extract from Investment News

For employees at American Realty Capital, a nontraded real estate investment trust, were notified by email that their annual holiday would be postponed.

“As you know, we ordinarily throw our holiday party in January,” according to the email from Mr. Schorsch. “This year, however, we have decided to move the celebration to warmer times, likely May or June.”

“We have not yet decided on a venue for the event, but rest assured, as always, it will be memorable,” according to the email, a copy of which was obtained by InvestmentNews. “We will keep you advised of our plans as we get closer to the date.”

wall-st-xmas-treeThe email was signed by Mr. Schorsch and his three partners at ARC: Bill Kahane, Mike Weil and Peter Budko.

Andrew Backman, a spokesman for ARC, said the email was accurate but declined to comment as to the specifics of why the holiday party was delayed.

Wall Street has a history of canceling holiday celebrations for fear of drawing criticism during stressful times.

Wall Street has a history of canceling holiday  celebrations for fear of drawing criticism during stressful times. In an attempt to keep a low profile, The Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in 2009 told its employees it would not host a corporate Christmas party; the investment bank also prohibited its employees from funding their own parties.

ARC and RCS Capital Corp., the broker-dealer holding company of which Mr. Schorsch is executive chairman, have faced intense scrutiny since a related company, American Realty Capital Properties Inc., at the end of October revealed a $23 million accounting error over the first half of the year that was intentionally not corrected.

Most other BrokerDealers will be celebrating the holidays on Wall Street this season.

For the full story from Investment News click here

What The Top BrokerDealer CEO’s Are Making Now

BrokerDealer.com blog up courtesy of extract from InvestmentNews.com.

Data on executive compensation at major Wall Street banks and broker/dealers was released this week by SNL Financial. The data looks at top compensated chief executive officers at firms that are publicly traded. We’ve excerpted the chief executives running firms that manage platforms used by retail financial advisers, from the Charles Schwab Corp. to Wells Fargo & Co.

Total compensation includes salaries, bonuses, perks, incentive plans, stock and option awards, pensions and other deferred compensation, according to SNL, a research firm.
(See also: 10 best-paying indie B-Ds)

Here’s who made the most money in 2013, ranked by total compensation in their industry category as defined by SNL, and how it compares to the year before.

For the full story, please visit InvestmentNews.com

Schorsch gobbles up another midsize IBD

BrinvestmentnewslogookerDealer.com blog update courtesy of extracts from InvestmentNews.com and Bruce Kelly

 

Nicholas Schorsch continues to add midsized independent broker-dealers to the Cetera Financial Group Network, and on Wednesday night Cetera parent RCS Capital Corp. said it intends to buy Girard Securities Inc.

The San Diego-based firm has more than $10 billion of assets under administration and 250 producing financial advisers with an average annual production of approximately $210,000 per adviser.

It is the second such announced deal in as many weeks for RCS Capital Corp., which is known by its ticker symbol, RCAP. Last week, RCAP said it had agreed to purchase VSR Financial, with 264 registered reps and advisers. Continue reading