Stifel took the top spot in satisfaction among employee advisors for the second straight year, with a score of 767 out of 1,000, 130 points higher than the employee segment average of 637. The firm continues to attract and retain advisors, reaching 2,300 advisors this year. The brokerage ranked first in the categories of leadership and culture, products and marketing and operational support.

The firm also continued to see traction in Stifel Independent Advisors, its independent b/d business, although not ranked here. Earlier this year, President and CEO Alex David left the firm to oversee the Northeast division of Raymond James’ independent advisor channel. 

Raymond James’ employee channel ranked second on the list for another year, with a score of 750 out of 1,000.

Headcount in that channel is up 3% from a year ago to a total of 3,747 advisors, as of March 31, 2024.

The firm recently announced a number of senior leadership changes, with CFO Paul Shoukry succeeding current CEO Paul Reilly as the firm’s leader in fiscal year 2025, part of a broader “multi-year succession planning process.” 

The firm also promoted Tom Walrond to head RJA, replacing Tash Elwyn, who was appointed president of the company’s Private Client Group.

Edward Jones was ranked third, with a score of 740 out of 1,000. It took the same spot as last year, but the firm used to be ranked highest in this survey for several years running.

Still, the firm ended last year with 19,232 financial advisors, up 2% from the prior year, according to regulatory filings. Advisor attrition decreased from 5.8% at the end of 2022 to 4.7% at the end of 2023.

And while Edward Jones has a long history of operating under a one-advisor-per-branch model, the firm has moved toward a team model in recent years. In 2022, the firm said advisors who choose to can co-locate in the same building. The firm then expanded the team approach to let experienced advisors share not just office space, but clients.

Now, the firm is testing another team model, aimed at bringing into Edward Jones seasoned advisors from outside the firm who are nearing retirement and looking for a place to transition their practice.

Merrill took the fourth spot on the list for employee advisor satisfaction, with a score of 657 out of 1,000. But the wirehouse moved up two spots from last year’s ranking.

As of the end of 2023, the firm had 18,916 advisors, down nearly 2% from the year prior. But the firm has since stopped reporting its advisor headcount.

Last year, the firm lost Andy Sieg, who had served as head of Merrill Lynch Wealth Management for six years, to Citigroup. Lindsay Hans and Eric Schimpf now serve as presidents and co-heads of Merrill.

The firm has lost some big advisor teams this year, including Oklahoma City-based Alain Verhille and James S. Wood, who left Merrill to join LPL Financial’s affiliation model for high-net-worth-focused advisors, LPL Private Wealth Management. They managed $705 million in total assets. In May, The Gray-Polverini Team at Merrill Private Wealth Management, which managed around $28 billion in assets, jumped to J.P. Morgan.

Merrill also had some big wins, including a 12-person Florida team from JP Morgan that manages $3.5 billion in client assets. 

Wells Fargo’s employee brokerage was fifth on the list, with a score of 563 out of 1,000. That ranked just below the segment average of 637. But the firm also boasted the largest year-over-year increase in satisfaction, up 156 from last year’s survey.

The wirehouse no longer reports its advisor headcount, but it had about 12,000 advisors as of January 2023, when it last reported that figure.

The firm kept its core compensation grid steady in 2024, although it increased expense allowances for all advisors and reduced incentives for mortgage referrals.

Morgan Stanley moved down a spot from last year to the last firm on the ranking, with a score 538 out of 1,000.

The wirehouse hasn’t reported advisor headcount since April 2021, when it was around 16,000.

During the first quarter, the wealth unit generated $6.88 billion in revenue, according to Bloomberg. Net new assets in the division, a key metric tracked by Morgan Stanley watchers, were $95 billion, higher than the previous two quarters combined and more than what the bank needs to meet the target it has sought to grow the business.

Waltham, Mass.-based Commonwealth took the top spot in satisfaction for independent advisors, for the 11th straight year. The independent broker/dealer had a score of 819 out of 1,000.

The firm had the highest scores in compensation; leadership and culture; professional development; products and marketing; operational support; and technology.

With headquarters in San Diego and the greater Boston area, the Commonwealth network comprises approximately 2,200 advisors. It plans to add Schwab as a secondary custodian to Fidelity in the coming year, as it leans into the fee-only side of the business.  

Privately owned since its founding in 1979, Commonwealth offers flexible affiliation models and a wide array of resources to its partner firms, including access to capital, practice management expertise, investments and research, marketing and compliance support, and a menu of outsourced services.

Raymond James’ independent contractor division ranked second with a score of 694 out of 1,000. As of March 31, 2024, that unit had about 5,014 advisors, down 2% year-over-year.

As part of the leadership changes at the broader organization, Raymond James announced in November that Shannon Reid would head the firm’s independent contractor division.

Cambridge moved up to the third spot on the list (from fourth last year), with a score of 676 out of 1,000, supplanting Ameriprise in the independent segment.

The Fairfield, Iowa-based independent broker/dealer, which now has about 3,700 advisors, has been expanding its capabilities over the last several years. Earlier this year, it launched a new registered investment advisory aimed at smaller, fee-only advisors looking for flexible acquisition options.

BridgePort Financial Solutions will be a standalone entity from Cambridge’s corporate RIA and broker/dealer, and it will take minority, majority or full ownership stakes in the advisor businesses that join the platform.  

In April, Cambridge rolled out an outsourced CFO offering to better support its advisors working with high-net-worth clients. The broker/dealer will pair advisors with a seasoned CFO, via a partnership with Hero CFO, a subsidiary of Compass CFO Solutions, to provide the services.

Ameriprise’s independent contractor unit moved down to the fourth spot on the list from third last year, with a score of 641 out of 1,000.

Ameriprise has 8,137 independent advisors, with a retention rate of about 92%, as of the first quarter 2024.

Across its wealth management unit, total client assets grew 19% to $954 billion in the first quarter. Client net flows were $8.5 billion. Operating net revenue per advisor on a trailing 12-month basis was $942,000, up 11%.

LPL ended up fifth on the ranking, with a score of 617 out of 1,000, just above the segment average of 611.

The firm has been busy this year. The firm recruited $20 billion in assets during the first quarter, bringing recruited assets over the trailing 12 months to $87 billion. LPL added roughly $2 billion to its newer affiliation models, including Strategic Wealth Services, its RIA offering and its W-2 employee model. It had about $3 billion of recruited assets into the traditional bank and credit union space.

Advisor headcount totaled 22,884, up 224 sequentially and 1,363 year-over-year.

Earlier this year, the firm announced plans to acquire Atria Wealth Solutions, which manages about $100 billion and works with roughly 2,400 advisors and 150 banks and credit unions.

Cetera Financial ranked sixth this year, with a score of 557 out of 1,000, just below the segment average of 611.

El Segundo, Calif.-based Cetera has more than 12,000 advisors across $213 billion in assets under management and $505 billion in assets under administration.

The firm has announced series of executive appointments in recent months. In June, it appointed Jerry Patterson as head of advanced wealth solutions, a newly created position. Patterson, the former president of Fidelity Investments Life Insurance Company, will build out Cetera’s retirement, life insurance and annuities products available to the firm’s advisors. It also hired Scott Baker, former president and chairman of the board for Fidelity Personal Trust Company, as head of corporate strategy.

Mike Durbin, CEO of Cetera Holdings, the parent company of Cetera Financial, also came from Fidelity, serving as head of Fidelity Institutional until December 2022. He joined Cetera in May of last year.

This is Osaic’s first time on J.D. Power’s list, under its new brand. The firm was on the list last year as its predecessor, Advisor Group, and it’s ranked seventh this year, with a score of 527 out of 1,000.

The firm has been going through a transformation since advisors last took the survey.

Last year, Advisor Group, one of the largest networks of independent broker/dealers, announced it would merge its multibrand network into a single entity with a new name—Osaic. Several of its broker/dealers have already been consolidated.

In May, Osaic finalized its acquisition of the $115 billion Lincoln Financial wealth business. More than 1,400 advisors will be onboarded.

Wells Fargo’s independent broker/dealer division finishes out the ranking, with a score of 447 out of 1,000.

The broker/dealer has been relatively quiet this year. In February, the firm tapped Erik Karanik to serve as head of independent solutions for the firm’s Wealth and Investment Management business. This is a newly created role, the firm said, and will be focused on growth initiatives across Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network and First Clearing, its clearing and custody unit. John Tyers still leads FiNet.