Registered investment advisory firm Concert Wealth Management is to recruit in the region of 40 financial advisors this year and is significantly expanding its presence, starting with two new locations in Los Angeles, CA opening within the next few weeks, On Wall Street reports.

The firm has also earmarked Boston, MA, New York, Washington DC, and Florida as potential wealth management growth areas, Felipe Luna, founder and chief executive, told the publication in an interview.

More specifically, Concert is due to to open a Chicago, IL, office in three weeks, as well as a Dallas, TX, location at the end of March. 

The firm reportedly appointed 20-year Merrill Lynch financial advisor Brad Stratton earlier this month, bringing about $75 million in client assets under management, to be based out of the firm’s Overland Park, KS office.

Luna explained in the interview that the main reason for creating the firm in the first place involved "getting away from major Wall Street firms," adding that recent appointees have also demonstrated the same sentiment.

“When we first started the firm, it was to get away from the bureaucracy and control mechanisms inside the large firms,” Luna is quoted as saying. “When we grew up a little bit after about a year and a half, we realized that our sentiment was shared widely and across the population in these wirehouses, and they all seemed to have the same set of issues.”

Luna also reportedly revealed that the firm plans to take on more financial advisors who are “focused on their clients and working mostly from fee-based platforms.”

“The complexity and cost of remaining compliant is going to go up for many of these RIA firms, so we’re starting to see a good many of them looking for some options,” Luna is quoted as saying. 

The firm could not be reached at the time of publication.

Concert Global, which is headquartered in San Jose, CA, was founded in 2006 and is a holding company which includes the firm’s wealth management unit.

The firm has about 66 financial advisors with two additional offices in Houston, an office in Tempe, AZ, and multiple locations in California, including San Diego, Port Beach, Walnut Creek, Menlo Park and Sacramento.