By Louis Diamond, Citywire – We are in the midst of a seller’s market, with announcements of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) continuing to dominate the headlines. In the first half of 2019, Fidelity Clearing and Custody Solutions reported 73 M&A transactions. Of those, 67 were RIA deals worth a total of $69.5 billion in assets, and six were independent broker-dealer transactions weighing in at $391 billion. What’s more, movement out of the traditional brokerage world has continued to accelerate.
By Louis Diamond – Conversations throughout the wealth management industry have escalated around the topic of “enhanced” sunset programs with talk that the advisor elite at Merrill Lynch will be offered a “retention deal” in the near future.
By Mindy Diamond, WealthManagement.com – The emotional and financial freedom many advisors have been waiting for is set to arrive in early 2016. That’s when the notes attached to many retention packages—offered in the wake of the 2009 financial crisis to more than 5,000 advisors at the wirehouse firms—are set to expire.
By Mindy Diamond – The emotional and financial freedom that many advisors have been waiting for is set to arrive in early 2016. That’s when the notes attached to retention packages offered in the wake of the financial crisis to more than 5,000 advisors are set to expire.
Howard Diamond Quoted – By Mason Braswell, InvestmentNews – Fifteen advisers, including most recently a team in Texas managing $750 million in assets, have fled Barclays Plc U.S. wealth management group in the last month to join Bank of America Merrill Lynch following the announcement that Barclays unit was being acquired by the lesser known Stifel Financial Corp.
By Mindy Diamond – I’m betting that “Should I Stay or Should I Go,” the 1982 song by The Clash, has come to mind for every Barclays advisor in the past several months. Their roller coaster ride of not knowing what firm they would be working for ended earlier in June when Stifel Nicolaus announced their intent to acquire Barclays’ 180+ advisor wealth management unit. This acquisition is just the latest in the ever-changing landscape of the financial services industry.
