Louis Diamond Quoted – By Peter Rawlings, Financial Advisor IQ – Wirehouses have been sweetening their succession programs in a bid to keep as many client assets in-house as they can. The recent changes can be a boon to outgoing financial advisors, who can cash out at higher rates and to newer advisors who might get the chance to buy a book of business.
By Mindy Diamond, WealthManagement.com – Financial advisors who opted-in to Merrill’s CTP (Client Transition Program) are finding they are stuck in the ironclad agreement, bound by a strict non-compete and clawbacks. It’s a cautionary tale for advisors who have yet to sign on.
Many advisors wonder whether their business value can be maximized under a brokerage umbrella. Louis Diamond shares 3 valuation scenarios, as well as sheds light on why so many advisors choose to go independent on the back 9 of their careers.
By Mindy Diamond, InvestmentNews.com – Most wirehouse advisors don’t typically spend a lot of time thinking about their end game. And industry studies bear that truth: It’s reported that some 70% of financial advisors do not have a formal or written succession plan. With the average age of financial advisors in the late 50s, that’s a pretty alarming statistic.
By Wendy Leung, WealthManagement.com – 2020 was off to a great start for advisors seeking new opportunities. Who could dispute the expansion of the landscape, advances in technology and widespread access to resources once only available at wirehouses? It seemed clear that advisors had more choice and opportunity than ever before. Then COVID-19 hit—changing the course of the year and of our world.
Louis Diamond Quoted – By Gary Stern, RIAIntel – RIAs must do more to retain talented older advisors. The average advisor is 51 and “nearly one-third of RIAs will retire in the next 10 years, representing 38.4% of assets.” Having extensively consulted about succession plans and RIA mergers and acquisitions, Louis Diamond, executive vice president at Diamond Consultants, based in Morristown, N.J. and New York City, recommends three strategies for firms dealing with advisors eyeing an early exit.
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.
In this special podcast episode, Vince Fertitta, breakaway Merrill executive who is now President of Sanctuary Wealth, joins the show to discuss the Merrill Lynch enhanced CTP and what it means for all Merrill advisors going forward.
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 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.
