Under a photo captioned “Louisville Slugging” Oisin Breen writes about RetireOne’s acquisition of EF Legacy Securities broker-dealer from Edelman Financial Engines.
In the “Brooke’s Note” intro to the piece, RIABiz Editor Brooke Southall says of the deal, “Nobody can dispute the beauty of guaranteed income. But in financial advice, such a thing takes the form of an annuity and often turns out to be too good to be true. Or at least the product often is way too expensive, too unwieldy and too deceptively sold to be considered broadly legit and appealing. Now the question is whether this new generation of fee-based annuities, sold through a new class of distributor, can revive the class market pressures bringing invention. Again, we see positive signs of progress, engagement and conviction by the new competitors. This time it is recycling a used annuity part from a $205-billion RIA with its focus on other aspects of wealth management.”
President Ed Mercier sizes up some of the advisor benefits of the purchase by noting that RetireOne will grow servicing revenue and add some efficiencies without forcing subscriptions or introducing other unnecessary costs to advisors or their clients. “We’re no longer paying fees to another broker-dealer, so we cut some of our operating costs, as well,” he explains.
