Nicholas Schorsch has done it again. The executive chairman of RCS Capital Corp. (RCAP) has acquired independent broker/dealer VSR Financial Services, adding $12.3 billion in assets under administration and 264 advisors to RCAP’s independent advice platform.
The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but RCAP expects the acquisition to create $112 million in revenue in 2015. RCAP is scheduled to release its second quarter earnings Thursday.
With the addition of VSR, Schorsch’s IBD empire grows to about 9,500 advisors and $197 billion in assets. LPL Financial, the largest IBD, has 13,840 advisors.
"We view the addition of VSR as a great example of an accretive 'tuck-in' acquisition for our retail investment advice platform,” said Larry Roth, CEO of Cetera Financial Group, also acquired by Schorsch.
In the last year, Schorsch has been on an acquisition tear in the independent b/d space. Last June, he took the initial leap into the IBD world when he bought First Allied. Then last fall, he announced plans to buy Investors Capital Holdings and Summit Financial Group. In mid-January of this year, he acquired Cetera Financial from Lightyear Capital, and just a day later, he picked up J.P. Turner.
Overland Park, Kan.-based VSR has a 98 percent retention rate among its reps, who have an average production of $380,000. About forty percent of the b/d’s revenue is fee-based, versus 50 percent from commissions. In WealthManagement.com’s 2014 Independent Broker/Dealer Report Card survey, VSR was ranked second for overall satisfaction among advisors.
RCAP expects the deal to close later this year or early next year.
