By Mindy Diamond – So what will become of the restrictions and added bureaucracy that firms enacted as a result of the DoL Rule? Will firms wave a magic wand to reverse their decisions and make the added restrictions disappear? Or will another Fiduciary standard be the new norm?
By Mindy Diamond – The industry is abuzz as advisors who had long counted on outsized recruiting deals to fund their retirements are now wondering what the future has in store for them. Much has been written in the past several weeks about Merrill and Morgan’s decisions to follow UBS’ lead and pull back on the amount of recruiting they will do. The majority of the rhetoric discusses the potential impact of these now lower recruiting packages and less appetite for talent on a prospective recruit; that is, the advisor who has plans to change jerseys imminently.
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.
By Mindy Diamond – WealthManagement.com – Recruiting deals have taken a big hit, dropping to levels we haven’t seen in years. So advisors who are considering a move are left with an uncomfortable decision: Do I stay and wait out the storm or leave now?
Howard Diamond Quoted – By Greg Iacurci, InvestmentNews – Merrill Lynch is taking a big risk on the wealth management unit’s new adviser recruiting strategy — one that could pay off, but just as easily backfire. “The firm will be hard-pressed to have an adviser join them when there’s the ability of recruiting bonuses from other firms,” said Howard Diamond, chief operating officer and general counsel at Diamond Consultants Inc., a recruiting firm.
Mindy Diamond Quoted – By Michael Wursthorn, The Wall Street Journal – Merrill Lynch will temporarily stop paying top dollar to recruit experienced brokers, according to a person familiar with the matter, the latest brokerage to make changes to how it compensates brokers poached from rivals. “For a long time all the [brokerages] felt the price of recruiting had gotten out of hand,” said Mindy Diamond, president and founder of Diamond Consultants, a Morristown, N. J.-based recruiting firm for financial advisers that does some business with Merrill. “It remains to be seen if it’s a sound strategy.”
Mindy Diamond Quoted – By Andrew Welsch, OnWallStreet – Merrill Lynch plans to scale back from adviser recruiting, mirroring a move that UBS took last year and creating an opening for smaller rivals to gain an edge in the competition for top talent. UBS has not completely pulled back from recruiting; it still hires top talent, but selectively. It isn’t clear if Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley will copy Merrill’s example.
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.
Howard Diamond Quoted – By Murray Coleman, Financial Advisor IQ – Juicy seven-digit bonus checks doled out by the likes of Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley might be a recruiting tactic that’s rapidly fading from the U.S. wealth management market. Indeed, industry experts are seeing upfront signing bonuses offered by big brokerages shrinking by as much as half of what they were less than a year ago.
