Carson hires Osaic's recruiting veteran to lead independent channel

Carson Group has hired Kevin Peterson as senior vice president of business development for its independent channel, putting a nearly three-decade recruiting veteran in charge of conversations with growth-minded independent advisors weighing a move. InvestmentNews reports the hire. Carson says it manages more than $62 billion in assets and works with more than 60,000 client families across more than 165 partner offices.

Peterson's route to the job runs through the platforms independent advisors have long used. He spent more than 16 years at TD Ameritrade Institutional, working on transitioning advisory firms onto that platform, then helped stand up Goldman Sachs Advisor Solutions. Most recently he was senior vice president of sales at Osaic, running the firm's recruiting organization. At Carson he will work alongside Scott Conroy, president of the independent channel.

The firm's case for the hire is a simple one. Conroy said Peterson has built his career around understanding what advisors want to accomplish and helping them position their businesses for long-term success. Peterson said independent advisors are increasingly looking for a partner that combines a strong RIA platform with broker-dealer capabilities, and he pointed to Carson's investments in technology and AI as the answer.

Timing and ownership give the move more context than a standard lateral hire. Bain Capital took a stake in Carson in 2021, and in April the firm officially became part of Osaic's capital stack in a $2 billion recapitalization led by Reverence Capital Partners. That places Peterson's old employer and new employer inside the same private-equity orbit. Carson and Osaic still compete for advisors, but the talent transfer has the shape of an internal reshuffling as much as a raid.

The context on the Osaic side sharpens the point. Osaic, which works with more than 11,000 advisors, has seen several senior leaders exit in recent months, Dimple Shah among them. The broader pattern, InvestmentNews notes, is that private-equity-backed consolidators are under pressure to keep their own talent even as they build out recruiting engines with seasoned business development managers.

The deeper value in this hire is in the relationships Peterson carries. Consolidators can make the same arguments about technology, payout grids and succession support. What they cannot copy is a recruiter who has spent a career in the rooms where advisors decide whether to move. Peterson's arrival is Carson's attempt to put that relationship capital on its side.

None of this guarantees Carson a single new book of business. Business development opens conversations; the platform still has to win them. But Peterson comes to his new job already known to the firms he will court and to the firm he just left. The early test is on Osaic: how quickly a replacement takes the seat Peterson vacated.