Now that the dust has settled after a number of firms—including Morgan Stanley and UBS—left the Protocol for Broker Recruiting Agreement, Fidelity surveyed advisors about the impact of the departures. As a whole, the results weren’t shocking. About half of the 455 advisors surveyed said firms that remained members of the agreement will be more attractive to brokers looking for a new employer. One interesting finding of the survey was that more than a third of advisors considering a switch (38 percent) said they are vetting how well potential employers would protect them during the transition.
BMO Wealth Management to Use SEI Wealth Platform
BMO Wealth Management, the U.S. advisory firm affiliated with Bank of Montreal, said Wednesday that it will begin using SEI's wealth management platform. The firm said the reason for the switch was to improve its technology and the experience for both its advisors and end clients. SEI’s platform fully integrates across client relationship, front-, middle- and back-office services. The company said it plans to announce more partnerships this year. Across 140 offices in the U.S., Canada, Hong Kong and Singapore, BMO Wealth Management has an aggregate of $49 billion in client assets under management.
Americans Uninterested in Closing Income Gap
Neither rich nor poor Americans are all that interested in redistributing wealth, according to a new study. The study, penned by political scientists at Stanford University, Washington University in St. Louis and St. Gallen University in Switzerland, gave 5,000 adults in Germany and the United States a chance to play Robin Hood by redistributing funds on Amazon gift cards in the amounts of $25, $50 and $75, The Sacramento Bee reports. “Participants in our experiment were willing to tolerate a considerable degree of inequality, even in a setting where they have full control over the final distribution of wealth and there are no costs of redistribution,” study co-author Michael Bechtel, associate professor of political science in Arts & Sciences at Washington University said.
