Debra Brennan Tagg, who runs Dallas-based BFS Advisory Group with $318 million in client assets, has left Osaic to join NewEdge Advisors, a New Orleans-based $28.5 billion registered investment advisory platform active dollars.
Brennan Tagg is joined by Assistant Wealth Advisors Erin Neece and Hollis Stuckert, Portfolio Analyst Bradley Rouse and three firm and client support staff.
Brennan Tagg began her career in 1999 with FSC Securities, which was consolidated into Osaic late last year. Last April, the legacy Advisor Group, one of the largest independent broker/dealer networks, announced that it would merge its multi-brand network into a single entity with a new name. A few months later, renamed company like Osaic.
“At BFS Advisory Group, we are constantly striving to improve our customer experience so that our clients can be confident in their financial decisions, and we want to bring that confidence to a wider group of people,” said Brennan Tagg in a statement. “It is this approach that also attracts senior advisors and service professionals to join our team. After a rigorous due diligence process, we selected NewEdge Advisors as our partner for the next phase of our firm so we can provide an enhanced investment platform with the technology and services our clients and advisors need.”
Her team is the latest of several departures from Osaic in recent months. last month, two advisory teams representing more than 30 advisors and $4 billion in client assets, divested to LPL Financial. Lutherville, Md.-based Academy Financial and Berwyn, Pa.-based PFG Advisors. were previously with Lincoln Financial's wealth business, previously Osaic bought it earlier this year.
In an interview with WealthManagement.comOsaic CEO Jamie Price said the firm expected some advisor attrition when it launched the legacy eb/ds integration, noting there were “no surprises” in their attrition numbers and that they were “on plan” with that that were waiting to pass. renaming Osaic.
Price also said it was “self-evident” that recruiters would take advantage of the changes (which Osaic calls the “Journey to One”) to try to lure advisers to other firms, and countered that the firm's private equity ownership was inspiring departures of advisers. .
“I think it's more about change within the company,” he said. “And I think there's a misnomer that a private equity firm comes in and they say, 'okay, you're going to do 'Journey in One,' and that's not how they operate.”
NewEdge Advisors is part of the NewEdge Capital ecosystem that includes two RIAs and a broker/dealer. He represents the firm's conventional independent channel, while NewEdge Wealth works primarily with very high net worth households. RIA has added 24 more teams representing 56 new advisors, with another 18 integrated into existing teams.