The management team of First Allied Securities and private equity firm Lovell Minnick Partners have reached an agreement to spin-off the full service independent broker-dealer from Advanced Equities Financial.

We’ve been looking at the independent broker-dealer space for a number of years, and really felt this was a differentiated platform in the industry,” said Robert Belke, managing director of Lovell Minnick. “Ultimately the opportunity arose to be able to, in conjunction with the management, acquire the company.”

From the perspective of First Allied, this was an opportunity for the company to “become truly independent,” said Belke. He also added that the acquisition would place Lovell Minnick in position for further growth opportunities.

First Allied will continue to distribute Advanced Equities’ products and services to customers in an ongoing relationship well into the future, according to Belke. “Effectively, the Advance Equities products will be treated like any other product that First Allied sells. It’s like a standard relationship with a product provider.”

The deal is expected to close during the fourth quarter of the year.

San Diego-based First Allied was founded in 1994, and is a full-service broker-dealer operating out of 500 branches in the U.S. The business to be spun off includes the broker-dealer unit, as well as the investment advisor, wealth management, insurance and pension services.

Los Angeles- and Philadelphia-based Lovell Minnick is a private equity firm managing about $800 million in assets, mainly operating in the financial services industry.

This is the latest instance of a PE firm acquiring an independent broker-dealer in a trend that has spanned the past several years. The last such deal happened in June, when HD Vest Financial Services, at the time owned by Wells Fargo, was acquired by Parthenon Capital Partners.