Abbey Eastham, a former senior manager of investment solutions at Cetera Financial, has joined Realta Wealth, a hybrid broker/dealer and RIA platform in Wilmington, Del. with more than $3 billion in AUM and 150 advisors, as head of advisor relations, a new company. the position created.
Eastham spent the last six years at Cetera in the investment solutions team. Prior to that, she was a senior vice president of advisor relations at First Allied Securities, a broker/dealer that was acquired by Cetera.
In her new role, she will report directly to Realta CEO Kevin Keefe. She is charged with managing the relationship between the firm and its network of advisors. She will gather advisor feedback and lead the firm's advisory board. She will also work with internal departments to improve the advisor experience.
“As a firm, we are providing our affiliated advisors with all the core benefits of a true independent provider, and to do that consistently, we need to listen and build trust by acting on their feedback,” Keefe said. in a statement. “Abbey is a seasoned professional who will be a fierce advocate for our advisors, ensuring their voices are at the forefront when we make decisions about improving our offerings and allocating resources here to deliver an experience of extraordinary advisor.”
Eastham's hiring follows news earlier this month that Realta added Paul Tyler as senior vice president of business development. He joins from Ameriprise, where he served as regional director of experienced advisor recruitment.
At the beginning of this year, Reality hired Mark Helliker as its chief operating officer. Most recently, Helliker was a consultant to other wealth management firms in the industry. Prior to that, he was interim COO at Avantax, which was acquired by Cetera.
Helliker's employment followed that of the firm renaming from CoastalOnea name that dates back to 1989, when the firm was founded in Cape Cod, Del. The firm had been an owner-operated business until late 2022, when Ryan Hanks, founder and CEO of Madison Capital Group, a real estate investment firm, took a majority stake in Orange Street Holdings, the entity that owns Realta. .
Hanks brought Keefea former executive with Osaic, LPL and Cetera, last June as its new CEO. Since then, the firm has built its executive leadership team, adding Yanni V. Bousnakis, a former senior vice president and head of advisory platforms and investment solutions at Kestra Financial, as chief product officer. Keefe also tapped Larry Roth, founder and managing partner at RLR Strategic Partners, Joseph Kuo, founder and CEO of Haven Tower Group, and Mike Zebrowski, COO at Docupace, to join the firm's corporate advisory board.