Cetera Financial Group, a provider of broker services, technology, and competitive advisory programs, has appointed two new executives to its wealth management team.

Alex Kaye will join as vice president of research whilst Kian Rafia will join as director of advisory products.

In his new role, Kaye will form a team to assist in expanding Cetera’s research offerings, reporting to Barnaby Grist, the firm’s executive vice president of wealth management. Kaye joins from Wilshire Associates, where he has spent the last three years as senior portfolio manager, vice president and investment committee member. Prior to that, he was a portfolio manager for Ibbotson Associates and also worked at UBS Global Asset Management.

Rafia, who assumes a newly-created role, will focus on extending Cetera’s wealth management platform. Previously, Rafia was senior analyst, investment products and platform, at LPL Financial. Prior to LPL, Rafia was director of product marketing, for Lord Abbott & Co.

Kaye will report to Barnaby Grist, Cetera’s executive vice president, wealth management whilst Rafia will report to Mark Palmer, Cetera’s national sales manager.

Cetera is based in Los Angeles and serves approximately 5,000 independent financial professionals and more than 700 financial institutions affiliated with its three independently managed broker-dealers: Financial Network Investment Corporation, Multi-Financial Securities Corporation, and PrimeVest Financial Services Inc.