Cetera Financial Group announced Tuesday that it picked up King Financial Network (KFN), a 14-person, Manalapan, New Jersey-based multifamily office that oversaw over $1.1 billion in assets under administration (AUA) as of July 2, from Commonwealth Financial Network.
KFN, led by Jim King Jr., its Founder, and Partners Tony Kelly and A.J. Vignola, joined Summit Financial Networks, one of the advisor communities within the Cetera Advisor channel, Cetera said.
“Jim is passionate about caring for clients and his team,” Todd Mackay, President of Cetera Wealth Management, said in a news release. “It shows in every conversation we have.”
With the affiliation, KFN is gaining “personalized service and access to the technology, expertise, advisory solutions and resources of Cetera,” according to Mackay.
He added, “I strongly believe the KFN team will thrive within Cetera and the boutique atmosphere of Summit.”
King said that LPL Financial’s recently announced acquisition of Commonwealth was an “inflection point” in his career leading him to search for a broker-dealer that, according to Cetera, would “provide deep relationship-based support and the strong sense of community that he said was at the heart of the firm’s growth.”
“We’re grateful for everything Commonwealth has done for us,” King said in the news release. Commonwealth CEO Wayne Bloom and his team “helped us grow in 10 years from $108 million in assets to over $1.1 billion,” King said.
KFN met with over 12 broker-dealers in its due diligence, including in-person meetings with Cetera executives and community leaders, according to Cetera.
“I love that Cetera focused on service and their expertise in different areas, which mirrors how we conduct our business at KFN,” King said. “We are also looking forward to Cetera’s advanced technology and maintaining Fidelity’s NFS for custody and clearing.”
“Cetera is very much about the people,” said Kelly. “Meeting with Cetera executives made me feel very comfortable about the executive access and the relationships we’re going to build together.”
Kelly added, “There’s mutual respect and we can be very direct knowing we’re looking to grow together and offer our clients the best service possible. We’re confident Cetera is the right long-term partner for our clients.”
“We emphasize the importance of having a multidisciplinary team all under one roof, being able to provide comprehensive wealth management services, from tax and financial planning to estate and insurance services,” said Vignola.
KFN will receive support from Cetera’s Regional Growth Team, which consults personally on business planning and growth, according to Cetera, including marketing support from Cetera’s GrowthLine program and business planning support from Growth360.
Cetera now has about 12,000 advisors and institutions in its network and, as of June 30, Cetera firms managed over $590 billion in AUA and $263 billion in assets under management (AUM), it said.
Jeff Berman, Contributing Editor and Reporter at Wealth Solutions Report, can be reached at jeff.berman@wealthsolutionsreport.com.
