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Pointes North Wealth Management, a Salem, N.H.-based financial advisor practice with about $500 million in client assets, has moved from independent broker/dealer Osaic’s 1099 to its W-2 employee channel.
The practice was affiliated with Innovative Financial Group, an office of supervisory jurisdiction with Osaic, which supported the team’s transition. Pointes North is led by managing partners Nathan Auclair, who has been with Osaic or its predecessor firms since 1994, and Brent Balloch, who has been with the firm since 2004.
According to an announcement, the transition allows them to spend less time on administrative tasks and focus more on growing the practice. It also provides more succession options.
“We’ve designed this channel to reduce operational complexity while giving advisors access to the scale, resources and support they need to build enduring businesses,” said Cindy Hamel, head of empowered independence. “This partnership reflects our commitment to providing flexible affiliation options that help advisors grow, evolve and serve their clients more effectively.”
The W2 channel has added four teams this year with more than $5 billion in client assets, Hamel said. A total of 10 teams representing $7.5 billion are currently operating in the model today; three of those additions were external.
Under the model, teams can choose to keep their brand or not. Osaic will handle all their back-office administrative work, and take over their technology infrastructure and cyber protection. The firm will also take on their expense management, bill pay, etc. Teams also have access to corporate-level benefits.
Teams under the model receive a lower payout than those in Osaic’s traditional 1099 model, although Hamel declined to give specific figures.
Osaic CEO Jamie Price has been championing the W-2 advisor channel as a way for Osaic to capture advisor interest in the RIA fiduciary model through fee-only or hybrid options.
Osaic, owned by Reverence Capital Partners, recently completed a merger of its eight brokerages under one name and onto a single platform. After completing what the company called Journey to One, it began hearing from advisors about the need for a W-2 channel to support transitions and succession plans.
Other recent additions to the W-2 channel include Bard Financial Services, a Connecticut-based advisory firm managing $1.2 billion in assets, and Veater Financial Group, a California-based wealth manager overseeing approximately $1.1 billion in assets under advisement.
Last year, Osaic acquired a majority stake in Innovative Financial Group, a Nashville-based advisory group specializing in continuity planning for its affiliated advisors. The firm joined Osaic’s W-2 model and brought advisors a “turnkey succession and continuity partner.”
Brian Heapps founded Innovative in 2017. He joined the industry in 1987 with John Hancock, eventually joining Signator Investors for more than two decades before its acquisition by Osaic (formerly Advisor Group) in 2018.
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