Compliance October 10, 2024

Fidelity Data Breach Exposed Info of 77,000 Clients

The August hack did not provide direct access to users’ accounting, according to a security breach filing.

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A data breach exposed the personal information of about 77,000 Fidelity clients this summer, the firm reported Wednesday.

From August 17 through August 19, a third party accessed and obtained client information without authorization from the company, Fidelity reported to the Office of the Maine Attorney General. The incident did not provide any access directly to those clients’ Fidelity accounts.

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In a letter to those clients, the firm explained that the hackers leveraged “two customer accounts that they had recently established” to gain access to information for a “small subset of our customers.”

“An investigation was promptly launched with assistance from external security experts,” Fidelity wrote in the letter to clients posted on the Maine attorney general’s website.

In that letter, Fidelity offered affected clients two years of credit monitoring and identity restoration service through Transunion LLC.

“We detected this activity on August 19 and immediately took steps to terminate the access,” Fidelity wrote via email. “We recognize our customers may have questions about this event and we have resources in place to assist them. Fidelity takes its responsibility to serve customers and safeguard information seriously.”

The exposure of client data adds to a growing list of incidents affecting asset managers and recordkeepers. Earlier this month, TIAA and TIAA Life reported being swept up in a 2023 hack of third-party vendor Infosys McCamish Systems LLC. In April, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reported an accidental leak by employees that exposed the data of 451,000 plan participants. In February, Fidelity discovered a breach of client data at its Fidelity Investments Life Insurance and Empire Fidelity Investments Life Insurance division from October 2023, according to a filing with the Maine attorney general; that incident was also related to the Infosys McCamish hack. 

The Fidelity breach exposed the data of 337 Maine residents, prompting Fidelity to file with the state’s data breach notification requirements.

Correction: This article removes an inaccurate reference to the type of clients effected and adds a Fidelity statement.

Deals & People October 9, 2024

Cetera to Acquire $16B RIA From Insurer

For the fourth time in five years, Cetera makes a deal with an insurance and annuity provider—this time Protective Life—to acquire a multi-billion-dollar RIA subsidiary.

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Cetera Financial Group announced another acquisition of a registered investment advisory from an insurer as it continues to grow its network of advisers.

The San Diego-based firm that has about 12,000 financial professionals nationally will add about 350 more with the acquisition of Concourse Financial Group Securities Inc., a subsidiary of Protective Life Corp. Based in Birmingham, Alabama, CFGS uses Protective’s retail distribution system and is a dually registered broker/dealer and RIA.

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CFGS is expected to join Cetera at the start of 2025 with more than $12 billion in assets under administration and $4 billion in assets under management. The deal, if approved by regulators, will be done via asset acquisition and will give CFGS advisers access to Cetera Wealth Partners’ resources. The firms declined to provide details of the transaction.

The deal marks the fourth insurance-owned broker/dealer Cetera has acquired in the last five years, according to the firm. That includes a 2023 deal to bring on 1,000 financial professionals from Securian Financial Group Inc. and a 2021 acquisition of Voya Financial Advisors’ independent financial planning business.

“Cetera has a proven track record of acquiring and successfully integrating independent broker/dealers affiliated with insurance organizations, and Concourse Financial Group Securities represents a tremendous opportunity in today’s rapidly consolidating market,” said Mike Durbin, CEO of Cetera Holdings, in a statement.

For Protective, the deal will allow the insurer to “focus on our core competencies in the life insurance and annuity business, while enabling Concourse Financial Group Securities financial professionals and clients to benefit from Cetera’s industry-leading resources and support,” said Aaron Seurkamp, president of Protective’s protection and retirement division, in a statement.

As of June 30, Cetera oversees more than $521 billion in AUA and $224 billion AUM.

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