In the heyday of national brokerage firms, there were no less than a dozen major players, all of which have consolidated into the four legacy wirehouses we know today: Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo Advisors and UBS.
But those old firms not only hold fond memories for the brokers employed by white shoe firms such as Hayden Stone and PaineWebber, some names still today seem imbued with trust and confidence.
In recent years, there’s been a push to revive some of these storied names. In 2012, former E.F. Hutton executive Frank Campanale looked to re-launch the firm as a boutique investment advisory firm, which sold itself to Shearson Lehman Brothers in the late 1980s. But Campanale set aside that ambition and became chairman and chief executive of Lebenthal Wealth Advisors LLC in October 2013.
Here we look at 10 of the best-known old school brokerages and what remnants remain within the four major powerhouse firms that eventually took their place.
