ALM First Purchasing Investment Advisory Business From WesCorp CUSO; Adds $1.7 Billion to Portfolio

DALLAS - WesCorp Investment Services, LLC is selling off its investment advisory book of business to ALM First. ALM First, an advisory firm, which up until a little over a year ago was a CUSO of EasCorp, has a much larger advisory business than WesCorp. ALM First has $7 billion under management and nearly 100 credit union clients. WesCorp has 14 CU clients and $1.7 billion under management. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the two parties did state that WesCorp will now be a minority owner in ALM First. "They're 10 times the size we are. It just makes a lot of sense to partner, instead of trying to replicate," said Siravo. "We've all known each other for a long time in this business, and we have just the highest regard for Emily and that team over there. They're real professionals in this business and have a lot of respect throughout the industry," said Siravo. Siravo was referring to Emily Hollis, president of ALM First. Hollis said ALM First remains committed to being an independent organization. "This means we can expand our organization into California, which is key for us. Another thing is this transaction is going to allow us to remain independent. That is so crucial for us, given we're fee based," she said. Being fee-based means ALM First does not have a stake in any particular firm getting business from credit unions. Hollis said this ensures ALM First is providing objective advice, and not steering CUs into certain investments. "We've always had the philosophy of being fee-driven and not commission-driven. It's very important for us to make our own decisions, stay objective." Siravo did say it can be difficult for a corporate to be in the advisory game. "You have to be very careful. If you are going to be doing an advisory service out of a corporate it puts pressure on the advisory service from the internal staff, wishing they advised more of your own products than they do," said Siravo. It seems strange to see the nation's largest corporate have to partner to bring a service to members, but Siravo said WesCorp has to do what's best for members. "It's one piece of a lot of businesses that we do. ALM First is best of breed, it makes sense sometimes to partner," said Siravo. WesCorp, like many other corporates, also recently transitioned its broker/dealer operation away from being an in-house operation. It aligned with U.S. Central's ISI CUSO for broker/dealer services. Siravo said the ALM First sale will not result in any layoffs. There were only a handful of employees working on the advisory side and they will be transitioned to other parts of the corporate. -pgentile@cutimes.com