The dually registered, or hybrid, channel is the fastest-growing channel, with its asset market share rising by 19 percent from 2010 to 2011, a recent report by Cerulli Associates found. The independent broker/dealer channel, meanwhile, lost 11.8 percent of the market share, making it the biggest loser over that period.
In the last few years, it’s the RIA channel that has been gotten the most attention, with many predicting a breakaway boom out of the wirehouses and into the RIA space. But dually registered advisors outdid everyone else in 2011, as Cerulli shows. That said, the RIA channel grew its asset market share by 14.7 percent in 2011 (nothing to sneeze at).
But the wirehouses still hold the most assets and the largest producers—the holy grail in this industry, even though the channel’s asset market share slipped by 0.3 percent.
“Advisors within wirehouses manage nearly double the assets of their competitors in the dually registered and RIA segment,” said Tyler Cloherty, associate director at Cerulli.
