Kristy Britt has been named Osaic’s new chief financial officer, replacing Jon Frojen.
Britt started her new role Monday and joined Osaic after a long stint with Thomson Reuters. Most recently, she was the head of finance for operations and technology, spearheading programs related to digital enablement, customer experience, cost reduction and generative AI efficiency, according to her LinkedIn page.
In an interview with WealthManagement.com, Britt said she’d worked with Frojen for the past month to ensure a smooth transition. (Frojen assumed the CFO role in 2020.) She will also move to Scottsdale, Ariz., to work out of Osaic’s headquarters.
Her hire comes as Osaic continues to merge its legacy broker/dealers and Lincoln Financial’s $115 billion wealth business, which it acquired earlier this year. The Lincoln business is set to be converted in January.
“I’m coming in at a really great time because since the data has all come together and the acquisitions have all come together, I now have this visibility into the whole of the organization in a far more standard way,” she said. “And that’s giving us insight into how advisors operate, the services they need … and how do we use the best practices across the various advisors to help them grow.”
In June 2023, Advisor Group announced its rebranding to Osaic, with plans to merge its 11,000 affiliated advisors and eight b/ds into a single entity. In a previous interview with WealthManagement.com, CEO Jamie Price estimated the firm was “about 80% done” integrating all its affiliated advisors onto a single tech stack.
The firm tagged the entire process as the “Journey to One,” and according to Britt, it has already aligned aspects like the back office and its technology so that the firm can focus on scale.
“The good news is they’ve done a lot of the heavy lifting already,” she said. “So they’re well-positioned to drive that growth.”
In the wake of the Lincoln acquisition, several former Lincoln advisors and teams with billions in AUM have left Osaic for competitors, with some former Lincoln advisors expressing wariness about Osaic based on its private equity ownership or the chance for further consolidation and disruption. Some firms from Osaic’s legacy b/ds have also left, though Price told WealthManagement.com the firm was “right on” with their annual projections of advisor attrition.
Britt said that she’d worked with acquired companies at Thomson Reuters and that the best way to ensure smooth integrations was to consider the benefits for both the acquired company and the acquirer, remembering that both companies can learn from each other.
“Typically, when you acquire a business, you did it for a good reason,” she said. “So you want to make sure you maintain those values and characteristics."
