January 9, 2020
Barbara Herman Quoted
By Miriam Rozen
News of employee layoffs signals no likely reductions in financial advisor ranks at two wirehouses, with Morgan Stanley cutting 1,500 workers and reportedly eliminating a possible 500 jobs.
Indeed, those two wirehouses and Wells Fargo have actively engaged in recruiting veteran FAs in recent months, recruiters say. Even Merrill Lynch has tapped outside recruiters this year to help hire experienced FAs — even though that wirehouse primarily has been known in recent years for hiring and training FAs through its and its parent Bank of America’s trainee programs.
“We just assembled predictions for the new year and, despite public proclamations to the contrary, we think all the major wirehouses will get back to recruiting aggressively,” says Barbara Herman, a senior vice president at New York-based recruiting firm Diamond Consultants. Her team expects recruiting efforts among the wirehouses to reach levels unseen for the past three years.
