Cetera Extends Investor Acquisition Program to All Affiliated Financial Professionals based On Organic Growth Results

Participating financial professionals eligible for full reimbursement of investment into LeadEngine acquisition program

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Nov 30, 2021, 12:04 ET

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Cetera Financial Group, one of America's largest networks of financial professionals, today announced that its investor acquisition program is expanding to all Cetera-affiliated financial professionals and that participants are eligible for reimbursement of their investment into the program. LeadEngine, which is powered by SmartAsset – the largest lead generation platform for financial professionals – is Cetera's exclusive investor acquisition program that connects financial professionals directly with highly qualified prospects who are actively seeking a financial professional.

Cetera and SmartAsset have collaborated since early 2019, testing multiple programs designed to match Cetera's financial professionals with new clients across the U.S. Cetera-affiliated financial professionals currently using SmartAsset are outpacing the 5% lead-to-client conversion benchmark. Year-to-date, the LeadEngine program has converted more than $20 million in advisory assets for Cetera advisors, with more than $75 million in assets in the pipeline. More than 100 Cetera-affiliated financial professionals currently participate in the program.

"Based on the success of LeadEngine along with positive feedback from participating advisors, we are pleased to extend this proven program to all Cetera-affiliated financial professionals," said Cetera Chief Marketing and Communications Officer Michael Zuna. "Our goal is to help advisors succeed in all aspects of their business, and we are excited to deliver a robust investor acquisition program that offers much more value than an affiliate relationship. From identifying qualified prospects to converting them to clients – and everything in between – LeadEngine provides a full-service, thoughtful and strategic approach to organic growth for our advisors."

"We are thrilled to continue our partnership with Cetera and help facilitate growth for their financial professionals across the country," said Michael Carvin, CEO and Co-Founder of SmartAsset. "With an audience reach of more than 75 million consumers each month, our unparalleled scale creates opportunities for advisors to grow their businesses via a fully scalable, on demand client prospecting service. Plus, our latest innovation, 'Live Connections' – which delivers warm leads via phone transfer – further helps advisors by eliminating the investor prospecting burden allowing them to focus on what they're good at: advising clients."

Many advisors using LeadEngine report tangible success in a relatively short timeframe and offer advice to other Cetera financial professionals who may use the program. "Cetera helped my growth strategy by giving me quality leads through LeadEngine," said Michael Argiro, a financial professional with Cetera Advisors. "In just four months, I have three new clients and over $1M in assets closed with another $1.5M in transition. Have a process, be patient and have fun."

To complement LeadEngine, Cetera's Growth Officers and engagement teams help advisors maximize prospecting opportunities. Cetera provides best practice guides in partnership with SmartAsset that review advisors' email outreach, lead nurturing, and text messaging with MyRepChat. Cetera partners with advisors to craft personalized lead-nurture programs using a ready-to-use-email sequence in its MarketingCentral platform to streamline the lead follow-up process, allowing financial professionals to customize communication cadence and personalize materials and messaging.

LeadEngine is the latest growth resource available to Cetera-affiliated financial professionals. In September, Cetera rolled out the Growth360 program to its network at the Connect21 annual conference. Growth360 empowers Cetera financial professionals to learn from and incorporate the successes of their fastest growing peers and will continue to expand with new phases in 2022 and beyond.

About Cetera Financial Group®
Cetera Financial Group (Cetera) is a leading financial services firm whose purpose is to enable the delivery of best-in-class financial advice to as many Americans as possible. Cetera empowers its financial professional communities to help clients achieve their version of financial wellbeing through the Advice-Centric Experience^®. Cetera proudly serves independent financial professionals, tax professionals, banks and credit unions in providing wide-ranging financial planning and wealth management services.

Cetera oversees $340 billion in assets under administration and $119 billion in assets under management, as of June 30, 2021.

Visit www.cetera.com, and follow Cetera on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

"Cetera Financial Group" refers to the network of independent retail firms encompassing, among others, Cetera Advisors LLC, Cetera Advisor Networks LLC, Cetera Investment Services LLC (marketed as Cetera Financial Institutions or Cetera Investors), Cetera Financial Specialists LLC, and First Allied Securities, Inc. All firms are members FINRA/SIPC.

Individuals affiliated with Cetera firms are either Registered Representatives who offer only brokerage services and receive transaction-based compensation (commissions), Investment Adviser Representatives who offer only investment advisory services and receive fees based on assets, or both Registered Representatives and Investment Adviser Representatives, who can offer both types of services.

About SmartAsset
SmartAsset is an online destination for consumer-focused financial information and advice that powers SmartAdvisor, a national marketplace connecting consumers to financial advisors. Reaching approximately 75 million people each month (as of Sept. 2021) through its educational content and personalized calculators and tools, SmartAsset's mission is to help people make smart financial decisions. Ranked on the Inc. 5000 and Deloitte Technology Fast 500™ lists of fastest growing companies in 2021, SmartAsset recently closed a $110 million Series D round, valuing the company at over $1 billion. SmartAsset was also named to Y Combinator's list of Top 100 Companies of all time and Forbes' list of America's Best Startup Employers in 2020. For more information, please visit SmartAsset.com.

SOURCE Cetera Financial Group