Louis Diamond Quoted – By Bruce Kelly, Investment News – At one time, major brokerage houses ran large, expensive training programs for thousands of young brokers, and now it looks as if they are about to return to that model.
Louis Diamond Quoted – By Lisa Shidler, RIABiz – Merrill Lynch & Co. quietly reversed its decision to slash recruiting bonuses after an intense backlash made the move untenable. Still, there were tea leaves of a different contour for Merrill Lynch execs to read, according to Louis Diamond, a recruiter for Diamond Consultants.
Howard Diamond and Louis Diamond Quoted – By Lisa Shidler, RIABiz – Bank of America made the second major move of an emerging master plan to recast Merrill Lynch as more of a bank subsidiary and less of a renegade satellite.
Louis Diamond Quoted – By Michael Thrasher, WealthManagement.com – Merrill Lynch’s decision to temporarily cease offering large recruitment signing bonuses was serendipitous news to smaller brokerages, as a number of them planned to do just the opposite this year. One brokerage in particular is standing out, according to Louis Diamond, the vice president of financial advisor recruiting firm Diamond Consultants. This year, the number advisors recruited by RBC Wealth Management U.S. has been “far above” the rest, Diamond said.
By Louis Diamond – Second of a series on advisor transition and transition deals: Analyzing transition packages attached to big firm moves and the components of these deals to help answer a burning question for many advisors: “What is the best deal on the Street?”
Louis Diamond Quoted – By Bruce W. Fraser, Financial Planning – Advisory firms are trying to figure out how to leverage their networks and technology to profitably expand their client bases.
Louis Diamond Quoted – By Bruce W. Fraser, Financial Planning – One way to build an advisory practice is to re-imagine what the firm will look like in one, three and five years, and plan for those goals. A slight variation on this strategy is to look at the business through the eyes of a possible future acquirer, says Louis Diamond, vice president and senior consultant at Diamond Consultants in Morristown, New Jersey.
Louis Diamond Quoted – Financial Advisor IQ – The Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule has certainly put a damper on broker recruitment deals, but it’s unclear whether wirehouses can keep them down, according to WealthManagement.com. The DOL took no issue with the size of the incentive deals, however, but only with the back-end compensation, Louis Diamond, vice president of recruiting firm Diamond Consultants, tells the web publication. Rather, the wirehouses took the opportunity to lower the bonuses, he says.
Louis Diamond Quoted – By Michael Thrasher, WealthManagement.com – Wirehouse compensation packages have remained low in 2017 and left some in wealth management wondering if recent changes to incentives are the new normal. “All the major firms blame the DOL on restructuring the recruiting deals,” said Louis Diamond, the vice president of Diamond Consultants, a recruiting firm that works with financial advisors. But he said it was clear the DOL’s issue was with back-end compensation schemes that were based on performance, and not the size of the compensation packages. “I think the firms saw it as an opportunity to bring down the bonuses,” he said.
Louis Diamond Quoted – By Janice Kirkel, RIABiz – The deal that sent a chunk of Carson Wealth Management’s assets to Cetera Financial Group from LPL Financial elicited the disclosure of forgivable loans, a stigmatized practice at best. Ron Carson, CEO of Carson Wealth, makes a strong statement in response to a reporter’s query of the mention of “forgivable loans” in the ADV filed on Jan. 25 by his firm.
