Is the head count falling at independent broker-dealers? Not yet.
Louis Diamond Quoted
By Tobias Salinger
The number of financial advisors dropped by the largest independent broker-dealers has not exceeded the number gained in any of the past five years, in a signal that forecasts of shrinking head counts have not come to fruition. Advisors would still be wise to prepare for the belt-tightening, though.
Meanwhile, technology like automated investing has streamlined the advisory business, often allowing advisors who acquire other practices to take on new books of business without adding more advisors, recruiter Louis Diamond of Diamond Consultants says.
Regulators’ enhanced scrutiny of advisors with disclosures on their records, the rising share of fee-based business over transactional commissions and the need for succession planning are all playing a role in a long-term trend toward lower headcounts in the industry at large and IBDs in particular, he says.
