The number of advisors switching firms in April dropped 25 percent versus the number who switched in March. According to Discovery Database, 1,961 reps changed b/ds in April, compared with 2,624 in March.
Over half of the advisors in motion are wirehouse advisors. But they’re not all abandoning the full-service Wall Street model for independence—49 percent of the wirehouse advisors who switched simply jumped to another wirehouse.“The movement out of the wirehouse channel is mostly by advisors producing under $500,000,” says Alois Pirker, senior analyst at the Aite Group. “Those are advisors who didn’t receive retention bonuses, but know they’re still considered high producers at other firms.”
Regional b/ds, however, are hiring the largest percentage of wirehouse reps that are breaking away from the channel. In March, regional b/ds gained 17 percent of departing wirehouse brokers while independent b/ds received 13 percent.
Among those regional b/ds having success with wirehouse recruits is Minneapolis, Minn. based RBC Wealth Management. The firm hired two teams out of Smith Barney on May 7 whose combined assets under management total $550 million.
Janney Montgomery Scott hired Michael Strochlic, a $1.1 million producer in Garden City, NY, from Wachovia. The firm also hired advisors from Smith Barney and Merrill Lynch this month with combined assets over $340 million.
Year-to-date through May 1, Raymond James and Associates (Raymond James’s employee division) hired 96 FAs from wirehouses totaling $45 million in production and $5.7 billion in assets.
Total Reps = 1,961 Source: Discovery Database
