August 10, 2021
The Tower 68 Team released on Monday with (remaining to proper) consumer associates Abundant Dougherty and Peter Jones, Chief Govt Ken South and COO and co-Founder Steve Arcos.
In a testomony to the challenges that brokers deal with in attempting not to idea off their businesses ahead of a prepared departure, an Oppenheimer broker in Newport Beach, California, was eased out on Friday immediately after the agency caught wind of his impending exit, in accordance to a source common with the go.
Kenneth South, a 36-year industry veteran, accelerated his go and had joined LPL Fiscal by Monday, according to the resource and BrokerCheck registration information. South, who was claimed to have been just one of Oppenheimer’s biggest producers in California, confirmed the go in a organized assertion and stated he managed a around $550 million book that threw off all around $5.5 million in expenses and commissions each year.
“We have been preparing and preparing for our changeover to LPL for several months,” South explained in the assertion, which did not directly tackle the source’s statements about an early exit. “We are enthusiastic about this next chapter in our business enterprise and seem forward to serving our purchasers from our new business office.”
South, whose previous staff bio claims he spends his spare time browsing, is contacting his new practice Tower 68 Economic Advisors, a reference to the numbered lifeguard towers alongside Los Angeles seashores. He moved alongside with two customer associates, Rich Dougherty and Peter Jones, and joined LPL’s calendar year-aged Strategic Prosperity Providers channel that delivers more promoting and operational help in exchange for a flat fee.
A spokesman for Oppenheimer did not return a request for remark.
At Oppenheimer, South had been element of a 6-particular person staff called The South Group that bundled 3 other advisors, John D. Mann, Michael Legaspi Jr., and Mark J. Roman, and two client associates, according to a former team site that was no for a longer period active on Tuesday. Attained at South’s former Oppenheimer branch, Mann verified the rest of the crew stayed driving but declined even further remark.
South, who had joined Oppenheimer in 2006 immediately after getting fired from Smith Barney, is joined at the new observe by Steven Arcos, a previous Oppenheimer Los Angeles-area branch supervisor. Arcos, a 21-12 months Oppenheimer vet, experienced still left in February to be a part of B. Riley Prosperity Administration but exited right after 7 months to co-uncovered Tower 68, according to his LinkedIn.
Arcos did not return a ask for for remark. The manager of Oppenheimer’s Newport Beach department, Michael C. Casey, who joined Oppenheimer in 2017 in the aftermath of a hedge fund financial commitment that went awry at the Merrill Lynch Las Vegas elaborate he had managed, also did not return a ask for for remark.
South started out his job at E.F. Hutton in 1985 and has nine ‘disclosure’ gatherings on his BrokerCheck document. 8 are shopper grievances, which include 5 that have been denied and 3 that were settled. The most new, a assert of unauthorized investing from January, was denied by Oppenheimer, according to BrokerCheck.
The ninth is South’s termination from Smith Barney, then a section of Citigroup, in 2006 for mismarking income of Citigroup stock in client advisory accounts as unsolicited, according to BrokerCheck. The broker stated the trades resulted in no client criticism or purchaser hurt.
Oppenheimer experienced 1,004 brokers at the close of June, down 2% from 1,029 a yr in the past, according to its most new earnings report.
LPL served 19,114 unbiased brokers at the conclude of June, up 1,442 from the stop of the very first quarter and up 2,141 year in excess of year, according to the company’s effects.