Cetera Financial Group has appointed Barnaby Grist as executive vice president, wealth management, effective 10 February.

He will report to Cetera chief executive Valerie G. Brown.

Most recently, Grist has been senior managing director, strategic business development, at Charles Schwab Advisor Services where he has led the creation, development and execution of Schwab's programme to serve advisers turning independent.

Prior to employment with Schwab, Grist served as a consultant with the Boston Consulting Group's financial services practice.

His many years in the financial services field also included a position as an equity analyst in Lehman Brothers' financial institutions group.

"We are delighted to have a professional of Barnaby's experience and expertise join the Cetera management team. With our advisors, we have built a robust advisory platform over the past several years. Barnaby's leadership will enable us to quickly deliver the next generation of sophisticated tools and resources that will help our advisors grow their businesses even more rapidly," says Brown. "We are hearing from more fee-only advisers lately who want to transition to a hybrid platform and we are particularly excited by the prospect of tapping into Barnaby's expertise. He truly understands the needs of sophisticated advisory practices."

In his new role, Grist will be a member of the firm's executive committee and lead the expansion of Cetera's wealth management services, which include advisory platform expansion; product research and due diligence; field marketing support; strategic relationship management; and practice management.

"This is a tremendous opportunity with a firm that is passionately focused on what advisors want and need to help them serve their clients," says Grist. "Cetera has proven its commitment to the independent financial professional community and has the talent, vision and resources to deliver leading edge product, services and support to its financial professionals. I look forward to working with the executives and advisers at the broker-dealers of Cetera to further develop their advisory platforms."

Grist will relocate from San Francisco to Cetera's headquarters in El Segundo, California.