Dempsey Lord Smith, a former independent broker/dealer managing $1 billion in assets, has decided to join Cambridge Investment Research as a wholly owned firm.
Dempsey Lord Smith makes the move after operating as a broker/dealer for 18 years under the leadership of CEO and founder Jerry Dempsey. Now, the Rome, Ga.-based advisory firm will broker/dealer with Cambridge, which is competing with larger competitors LPL Financial, Osaic and Cetera to draw advisors.
Dempsey Lord Smith made the move after deciding that it was no longer necessary to run a broker/dealer to sustain growth and scale.
“This partnership allows us to build on the strong community we’ve created while giving our advisors access to a deeper set of tools, technology and services,” Dempsey said in a statement. “Together with Cambridge, we can accelerate their growth far faster than if we continued building it alone.”
Dempsey left Raymond James in 2007 to start the firm with John Lord, vice president of compliance, and Ernest Smith, vice president of sales and marketing. They then built it into an advisor and employee network of about 88 people, according to data from ISS MI MarketPro’s Discovery Data.
About 75 of them will be coming over in the move to Cambridge, according to the announcement.
The leadership team will remain in place in the move, including Dempsey, who holds just below a majority stake, and Smith, Lord, and Duvan Brock, all of whom have a minority stake, according to the same data from Discovery.
Republic Capital Group and Williams Private Wealth Advisory & Consulting served as financial advisors on the move.
Earlier this year, Cambridge lured a team from the AmeriFlex Group, a hybrid RIA and supervisory jurisdiction office of Osaic, which had 129 advisors and approximately $11.87 billion in client assets.
