Consultancy, manager of managers, insurance agency plans expansion in 2008. Plano, Texas-based Level Four Group has switched its broker-dealer affiliation from Securities America to Lincoln Financial Network (LFN). Level Four, which provides investment and insurance products as well as practice-management consulting services to about 180 individual insurance brokers and investment advisors, says the move was necessary to support its near-term expansion plans.

"We need a partner that embraces our growth initiative," says Level Four's president Jake Tomes.

Elbow room

Right now Level Four has three field offices to provide on-site support to its affiliates in its home state. One is in Irving, which, like Level Four's headquarters, is in metropolitan Dallas; the others are in Houston and in Paris, Texas.

By the end of the year though, Level Four plans to have six more field offices: two more in Texas, and one each in Los Angeles, Phoenix, Fort Wayne, Ind., and Tampa Bay, Fla.

The planned expansion is a matter of keeping pace with demand on the ground, says Tomes.

Level Four chose LFN over Securities America, an Omaha, Neb.-based unit of Minneapolis-based Ameriprise, it could accommodate Level Four's need for a broad and expanding geographic footprint and didn't object to Level Four providing compliance and supervision function for its affiliates.

Many broker-dealers prefer direct affiliations with independent advisors, says Tomes. Level Four's business model puts another layer between the trading firm and the client-facing advisor.

Tomes founded Level Four about eight years ago to provide business-consulting services to CPA-affiliated investment and insurance practices. Though practice-management consulting is still a large part of its business, Level Four has since become a master general agency for insurance and, as of about two years ago, a manager of investment managers.

Level Four works mainly with the insurance and investment-advisory affiliates of CPAs and law firms. It manages about $150 million.

Making LFN an attractive home to a growing firm like Level Four meshes with the "strategic business strategy" of LFN's corporate parent Lincoln Financial Group, according to Lits president and CEO Robert Dineen. "Level Four is a large and very sophisticated organization, and the marriage of our two companies bodes well for the continued growth of both."

LFN says it expects to make more deals with Level Four-like firms in coming months.

Philadelphia-based Lincoln Financial Group provides insurance, annuities and investment products in addition to financial-planning and advisory services. -FWR

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