By Kenneth Corbin

Primerica Financial Services is suing Osaic Wealth, alleging "illegal corporate raiding and other improper attacks" on its business.

Primerica, based in Atlanta, alleges that Osaic enticed a West Virginia advisory team that managed more than $530 million in client assets and another $184 million in life insurance policies to join its platform.

"Osaic deploys a pattern and practice of unlawful activity to pirate licensed sales representatives and valuable customer relationships from its competitor firms," Primerica said in its complaint, filed in federal court in Georgia's Northern District.

Osaic rejects "the characterization of the conduct alleged by Primerica and believe[s] this suit to be without merit," a spokeswoman says.

"The advisors who chose to affiliate with Osaic have taken intentional steps to fully honor their contractual obligations including refraining from client solicitation and preserving any Primerica materials for retrieval," she says. "These financial professionals built their practices independently over decades as true business owners, and they are simply continuing to serve clients who actively choose to engage them."

The lawsuit is the latest clash between firms battling over advisory team transitions, reflective of the intense competition for top talent and client assets.

A financial-services firm that focuses on middle-income Americans, Primerica offers them term life insurance and investment products such as mutual funds and annuities. Osaic, formerly known as Advisor Group, is an independent broker-dealer and registered investment advisor that works with more than 11,000 financial professionals.

Primerica accuses Osaic of using "large cash bounty payments" to entice its advisors to breach their fiduciary and contractual duties. It is seeking more than $50 million in compensatory and punitive damages.

Primerica describes Osaic's recruiting operation in harsh terms, saying it is engaged in an "ongoing conspiracy and scheme to raid and pirate Primerica's valuable business assets." Those assets include its network of registered representatives, who are primarily independent contractors, their client relationships, and Primerica's confidential and proprietary business information.

The lawsuit alleges that Osaic routinely recruits top producers from other firms and contends that its "business model is dependent on poaching representatives from competing firms and inducing them to breach their legal and contractual duties in order to move business away from their prior firms."

Specifically, Primerica challenges Osaic's use of forgivable loans to induce advisors to join its platform. In the case of the Primerica branch in Hurricane, W.Va., at the center of the current dispute, the lawsuit claims that over a two-business-day period this month, Osaic induced six representatives who managed 96% of the client assets served by that office to switch firms. "Almost immediately after announcing they were leaving Primerica, the representatives changed the office signage and actively made the office 'open for business' selling products for Osaic," the lawsuit states.

The team is led by Brian Collins, a 37-year industry veteran who dubbed his Osaic practice Legacy Investment Advisors and Wealth Management, which is named as a defendant in the Primerica lawsuit.

Osaic has indeed emerged as a prolific recruiter and has recently recruited a handful of former Commonwealth advisors to its platform, but the firm disputes the charge that its recruiting efforts run afoul of the law.

"We will address the allegations through the proper legal channels," the spokeswoman says.

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October 29, 2025 11:31 ET (15:31 GMT)

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