Claiming that he’s more hurt than angry with Financial Telesis founder Jim Williams for selling his firm to LPL, RPAG CEO Vince Giovinazzo said that his firm was scrambling to help RPAG members that are part of FTI during the transition.
But in a letter to RPAG members, only those joining the Bill Chetney-led Global Retirement Partners within LPL will risk losing access to RPAG services — meaning that RPAG members with the approximately 30 other broker dealers even theoretically with LPL may continue to access RPAG. Making a pitch for NFP (one of the 30 BDs which now owns 100% of RPAG), Giovinazzo said that his parent company will offer transition services — including forgivable loans — while maintaining the FTI payout and free access to RPAG.
In an interview with 401kWire, Williams claimed that LPL is the perfect marriage for FTI and its advisors, with its unique combination of technology, tools, service, compliance and support from the industry's largest IBD. Though there was an informal partnership with RPAG, FTI had no formal written agreement — a relationship that, according to Williams, went from collaboration to competition once RPAG was fully acquired by NFP and they started recruiting FTI advisors.
So is this just a continuation of the feud between Chetney and Giovinazzo on a much more public stage? Or, with NFP recently taken private by Madison Dearborn, is it a power play to leverage the breadth and depth of the RPAG network, whose advisors manage 26,000 DC plans and $150 billion of assets? Time will tell.
