Cetera COO Tom Gooley to Retire

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Tom Gooley will retire from his position as chief operating officer of Cetera Financial Group at the end of the first quarter, the broker/dealer network said Wednesday. Gooley will help the firm transition to the new COO, to be announced soon. 

“Tom agreed to stay through a critical period of transitions and growth to ensure consistency of service and stability for operations for our advisors, partners, and internal teams,” said Mike Durbin, CEO of Cetera Financial Group, in a statement. “Tom’s leadership was crucial to steering Cetera into a powerful industry position, and we are grateful for the positive impact he’s had on our organization, countless advisor practices and the career paths of so many Cetera employees.” 

Gooley joined Cetera in October 2020, assuming responsibility for the firm’s service, technology, trading and operations. Prior to joining, he was the managing director of service, trading and operations at LPL Financial, where he rebuilt the firm’s call center. Prior to that, Gooley held senior roles at TIAA-CREF, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America Securities and Goldman Sachs. 

At Cetera, Gooley spearheaded the rollout of Cetera’s multi-custodial platform, adding Fidelity’s NFS Clearing services. He also led the integrations for Cetera’s acquisitions, including Voya, Securian and Avantax. 

“This is both a celebration of Tom’s impact and a confident handoff to what comes next,” Durbin said. 

Late last year, the company said it made “a small workforce reduction.” Cetera did not elaborate on the types of roles being cut, but said there was “minimal impact on field-facing employees and no impact on the Regional Growth Teams that support our financial advisors and institutions.”

The moves added to the layoffs the firm made earlier in 2025, which Cetera also said were not advisor-facing. 

Cetera currently has about 12,000 advisors across its various channels. They collectively oversee more than $625 billion in assets under administration and $284 billion in assets under management.