By Jason Diamond – What’s changed at Ed Jones—and what’s driving so many advisors to seek other options? While many brokerage firms have seen noticeable advisor attrition in recent years, the velocity of moves away from Ed Jones, a firm that built its legacy on a strong culture, begs a few important questions.
Louis Diamond Quoted – By Miriam Rozen, AdvisorHub – A long-running trend of experienced broker attrition from wirehouses is ebbing, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo executives claimed in the past week. But the advisor teams that do breakaway from the wirehouses continue to have an adverse impact since they leave with large chunks of assets, the recruiters said.
Louis Diamond Quoted – By Jake Martin and Mason Braswell, AdvisorHub – Merrill Lynch Wealth Management President Andy Sieg on Wednesday acknowledged an issue with broker attrition and sought to reassure the Thundering Herd that the wirehouse is focused on retention and making Merrill the firm “of choice.”
Josh Tomolak Quoted – By Gary Stern, RIA Intel – Advisors who switch firms or strike out on their own regularly trumpet their successes, breathlessly saying they wish they left sooner. However, a new study by Cerulli Associates examines the often unspoken downside — client attrition and loss of client assets.
Mindy Diamond Quoted – By Jeff Benjamin, InvestmentNews – First Command Financial Services, a $29 billion hybrid firm with 500 advisers, is transitioning its executive-level leadership, with a new CEO starting Jan. 1. Mark Steffe, 50, the current president and chief operating officer, will take over as chief executive in January, replacing current CEO Scott Spiker, who joined First Command in 2007 following a leadership overhaul at the company.
Mindy Diamond Quoted – By Miriam Rozen, Financial Advisor IQ – Don’t expect other wirehouses to match Merrill Lynch’s recently-sweetened payouts for retiring advisors, because Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo and UBS had taken steps previously to retain senior talent. In addition, precise comparisons of the various incentives the wirehouses offer are difficult for FAs to make, say recruiters. Mindy Diamond, longtime industry recruiter and president and CEO of Diamond Consultants, suggests Merrill Lynch’s new plan may have disappointed some of its FAs.
Louis Diamond Quoted – By Alana Pipe, FundFire – More than a third of financial advisors are expected to retire in the next 10 years, which will result in an estimated $7.8 trillion in assets changing hands, according to a recent report from Cerulli Associates. In anticipation of this retirement boom, wealth management industry firms are scrambling to ensure the smooth transfer of clients to the next generation of advisors while keeping assets in house. For younger advisors, building a business at a wirehouse like this comes at a price, says Louis Diamond, executive v.p. and senior consultant of Diamond Consultants, a recruiting firm.
Mindy Diamond Quoted – By Mrinalini Krishna, Financial Advisor IQ – Merrill Lynch has added a big sweetener to payouts for advisors on the brink of retirement by tweaking its Client Transition Program (CTP). The wirehouse announced Wednesday an increase in its award payouts to retiring advisors for all production levels. The award has increased by five percentage points for the lower-production tiers while the top producers ($7.5 million or more) could see their payout jump by a whopping 75 percentage points to a maximum of 275% of their trailing-12 month production.
Mindy Diamond Quoted – By Jed Horowitz and Mason Braswell, AdvisorHub – Merrill Lynch Wealth Management unveiled long-anticipated changes to its account-transition program for retiring brokers on Wednesday, adding five to 75 percentage points to the payouts brokers can receive over five to seven years after selling their “books” to colleagues.
By Mindy Diamond – As firms cut back on recruiting and amp up their retention efforts, the balance of power shifts further and further away from the advisors—diminishing leverage, business value and opportunity, and leading down a path that advisors fear most.
