Within the wealth management industry, tracking the many financial advisors zig-zagging across the industry from firm to firm comes with the territory.

After all, the largest wealth firms have thousands of wealth managers with longtime clients, and the force of so-called independent advisors unattached to big banks and launching their own practices is growing.

The pace of advisors uprooting their practices slowed down briefly at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, but it hasn’t slowed down since, recruiters told Insider.

Employers and advisors aren’t deterred by the recent market slump either. For wirehouses, the interest rate hikes actually incentivize them to hire advisors with big books of business, according to Louis Diamond, president of Diamond Consultants.

“It’s actually a good thing for firms when rates rise like this because a major driver of their profitability is net interest margin or how much they’re making on client cash,” he said, referring to the difference between interest income and the interest paid to lenders. “We’ve actually seen some clients, even in this market environment, increase their deals and are willing to be more aggressive or creative because bringing on a new team might have a more positive impact than before.”

With the flurry of advisor movement, Insider has identified 10 well-connected financial advisor recruiters and consultants who are active in the industry.

Louis and Mindy Diamond, Diamond Consultants

Among the most visible financial advisor recruiters in the industry today — and the most-recommended by industry sources to Insider for this list — are Mindy Diamond and her son, Louis, who run Diamond Consultants with Mindy’s husband, Howard. 

Mindy Diamond founded the Morristown, New Jersey-headquartered firm in 1998, and is today president and chief executive. Louis is president and senior consultant, and Howard is chief operating officer and general counsel.

The firm calls itself “firm-agnostic,” working with traditional brokerages, boutique, and regional firms, along with firms across the independent broker-dealer and RIA landscape.

Among the recent moves Diamond Consultants have facilitated include moving two UBS teams with $770 million and $850 million in client assets, respectively, to Sanctuary Wealth, as well as a Merrill team with $920 million in assets to Raymond James.

Despite economic uncertainty, advisors can make “life-changing” sums from switching firms now.

“An advisor with a million dollars a year in revenue, which is about the industry average, can very easily get a $3 million deal or more to go to another firm,” he said.