If one were to compile a list of themes that have defined the independent broker-dealer industry over the 40-year history of Financial Planning, growth would undoubtedly be near the top. Not just boring, steady growth, either. Over the past couple of decades we're talking eye-opening, game-changing, bang-on-the-door-of-Merrill Lynch growth. Talk to industry folks and many will say that the massive LPL Financial, for example, looks a lot like a wirehouse in scale these days. That's either good or bad, depending on whom you're talking to. Securities America, the fifth largest independent broker-dealer by revenue, according to Financial Planning's 2009 broker-dealer survey, is not quite that big. But it's close. And the company's executive team seems to view its stellar growth with a mix of pride, and a small degree of hesitation.

Executives at Securities America say they are happy with the evolution of the company from a $120 million broker-dealer in 1998 to $412 million in revenues it took in last year. But they are confronting a reality that comes with this success: Their reps don't necessarily want them to get any bigger. During a recent two-day visit to Securities America's offices in Omaha, Neb., the firm's leadership team admitted to pondering over the question of how big is too big.

"The thing that we hear all the time is that the independent broker-dealer representatives want intimacy," says Steve McWhorter, Securities America's outgoing chairman and CEO. "They don't want to become a number. The LPLs of the world have to worry about [their reps] becoming a number. As we get bigger and more successful we have to worry about the same thing."

In a speech McWhorter delivered in 2007 at Securities America's national conference in Salt Lake City, he mentioned that the firm was the country's fifth largest independent broker-dealer. McWhorter thought everyone was going to stand up and cheer. About half of them did. As McWhorter walked out, however, he heard from other reps who told him that they didn't want Securities America to get any bigger.

"They didn't want to lose the intimacy," McWhorter says.

In addition to the $412 million in revenues for 2009-roughly $135 million from fee-based business and $232 million from commissions-Securities America now has 1,933 total reps. The company, which celebrated its 25th anniversary last year, initially started as a marketing and insurance firm, but began to venture into the securities business around 1988. A decade later, Securities America was purchased by American Express and became a sister company of American Express Financial Advisors, which was spun off into Ameriprise in 2005. When Jim Nagengast, president and chief financial officer, began working at Securities America 15 years ago, the firm was a $40-million broker-dealer. Although the company's growth has been impressive, he acknowledges that LPL "has probably cornered the market on being the biggest" independent broker-dealer. Like McWhorter, Nagengast thinks growing in scale can have both positive and negative effects.

"We want to be big enough to be sophisticated, but not so big that we don't create a personal relationship with our reps," he says. "I still give my cell- phone number to a lot of our advisors."

Time for Change

One can often glean a lot about the culture of a company by observing the way people act around their boss. For example: During the two-day visit to Securities America's headquarters, McWhorter was asked about the fallout from a complaint filed earlier this year in Massachusetts alleging that the broker-dealer had misled investors by selling securities of Medical Capital Holdings, a company later charged by the SEC with fraud. Specifically, questions arose about whether McWhorter's announcement in January that he was stepping down was a result of growing FINRA securities arbitration claims rather than the fact that at 67 years old he's, well, at that age when people often retire.

Before McWhorter had a chance to respond, Doreen Griffith, chief information officer for Securities America, interjected: "Well, now you can see how old he is." The rest of the executive team, meeting inside a conference room, broke into laughter.

The complaint filed by the Massachusetts Securities Division in January charging Securities America with misleading investors by selling roughly $697 million in promissory notes issued by Medical Capital Holdings, is, of course, no laughing matter to the firm (more on that later). But Griffith's quip-one of several jabs executives made at McWhorter and his impending retirement-suggests that members of Securities America's leadership team share a genuine camaraderie.

And why not? Along with Nagengast's 15 years at the firm, McWhorter and Janine Wertheim, senior vice president and chief marketing officer, have been with Securities America for over 22 years. "We're very proud about what we've done as far as growing our technology, our assets under management and our practice management," McWhorter says. "But one thing we're also proud of is that we have a management team that's been together a long time."