Mindy Diamond Quoted – By Lisa Shidler, RIABiz – If you’re trying to build a giant RIA to $100 billion in assets, you won’t get there if you give up easily. Focus Financial founder and chief executive Rudy Adolf, for instance, spent seven years trying to convince Colleen Lindstrom, CEO of Merriman Inc., to sell her $1.5 billion firm to his company.
Mindy Diamond Quoted – By Joyce Hanson, Think Advisor – A team of Baltimore-based financial advisors with $200 million in assets under management and $2 million in annual production has jumped ship from Wells Fargo to join Raymond James’ independent broker-dealer channel, Raymond James announced.
By Mindy Diamond, WealthManagement.com – Marriage is a serious commitment between two people who enter into the union with all the best of intentions to stay together forever. Unfortunately, statistics show that almost half of marriages will end in divorce. In the same way, advisor partnerships are not immune to divorce.
Mindy Diamond Quoted – By Patrick Graham, The Wall Street Journal – Dynasty Financial Partners, HighTower Advisors and Focus Financial Partners–three of the highest profile destinations for brokers who break away from the biggest retail wirehouses–are ready to mark 2012 as one of their best recruiting years in their short histories, reports Wealth Management at WSJ.com. So what’s behind this momentum? Three factors are in play, industry observers and recruiters say. First, technology advancements have allowed the firms to shrink the gap between themselves and the big brokerages. Also, the broker workforce today is less loyal given the many industry mergers and acquisitions during the past few years. Lastly, the firms have bolstered their credibility by simply poaching top talent. Putting all of this in perspective, top recruiting consultant Mindy Diamond notes that the firms have managed in very short order to develop a model to allow advisers to go independent–and thrive. “Since these firms’ inceptions, they’ve had a powerful impact on the industry,” she says.
Mindy Diamond Quoted – By Kevin Noblet, The Wall Street Journal – Recruiter Mindy Diamond believes that, when it comes to their careers, some women advisers are just too trusting and others fail to set their own expectations high enough, Financial Planning says. Speaking at a women advisers’ conference in Boston, Ms.Diamond also listed failing to have a clear succession plan as a mistake some make. Men, of course, commonly do that, too.
By Mindy Diamond, WealthManagment.com – FINRA is once again putting the topic of broker recruitment packages on the table. According to a notice the regulatory organization posted to its site yesterday, next month’s Board meeting will include consideration of a rule change that would require brokers to disclose details of their recruitment compensation packages to their clients if they were to move from one firm to another.
November 25, 2012 – By Mindy Diamond, WealthManagement.com – When we think about remarkable years in terms of advisor movement, we immediately recall 2008-2009, when more than 20,000 advisors switched firms. I doubt we will ever see another time like that with a similar confluence of events and frenzy. While movement in 2012 feels relatively disappointing, particularly in the wirehouse space, the year will likely be remembered for a few surprises and highlights.
Mindy Diamond Quoted – By Brooke Southall, RIABiz – FINRA is set to consider new rules that would lift the curtain on the terms and conditions of massive payoffs made by wirehouses to convince brokers to make a lateral move from another wirehouse.
By Mindy Diamond, WealthManagement.com – All advisors get frustrated with their firms at times and consider jumping ship, but only 22% on average actually change organizations in any given year. Yet restlessness seems to be on the rise. 29% of advisers at national wirehouses said they were considering leaving their firms in the coming year compared to 25% the year before, according to a study by Cogent Research.
By Mindy Diamond, WealthManagement.com – There has been a lot of talk in recent years about how the industry has changed—particularly in regards to the breakaway broker trend and the move toward independence. Every industry survey from the likes of Aite Group, Cerulli or Tiburon seems to reinforce the idea the breakaway trend is picking up steam. Tiburon recently found that “fee-based financial advisors have $2 trillion assets under management, up nearly 40 percent since 2005.”
