Mindy Diamond Quoted – By Cyril Tuohy, insurancenews.net – As many as 711 securities brokers who jumped ship to rival firms or started their own business took with them $98 billion in assets last year. This is a sign of just how ferocious the recruitment wars have become, an analysis conducted by Reuters has found.
By Mason Braswell, InvestmentNews – Morgan Stanley Wealth Management has kicked off the recruiting year with the high profile hire of a trio of elite Bank of America Merrill Lynch advisers in Chicago. Veteran Merrill advisers Linda J. Stephans, Kristina Van Liew and Erik Oiler, who led a team of nine as part of Merrill Lynch’s Private Banking and Investment Group, a specialized unit for around 150 teams working with ultra-wealthy clients, jumped to Morgan Stanley on Friday, according to registration records with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Barbara Herman Quoted – By Thomas Coyle, Financial Advisor IQ – In recent weeks, the four biggest retail brokerages all updated compensation plans for the 53,000 or so financial advisors who work for them. Most of the tweaks concerned bonuses, and though they differ in the details, experts say they are alike in one vital respect: They’re hard to follow.
Howard Diamond Quoted – By Andrew Welsch and Suleman Din, OnWallStreet – Morgan Stanley joined a growing list of prominent corporate brands to suffer a data breach, after it revealed an employee stole the information to as many as 350,000 wealth management clients, and that some of the data was posted online.
By Mindy Diamond, WealthManagement.com – Breakaway broker? More like breakback broker. While the wirehouses continue to lose advisors to the independent channel, they are also luring some large teams of their own back to their ranks.
Mindy Diamond Quoted – By Brooke Southall, RIABiz – FINRA is set to consider new rules that would lift the curtain on the terms and conditions of massive payoffs made by wirehouses to convince brokers to make a lateral move from another wirehouse.
By Mindy Diamond, WealthManagement.com – Irish novelist and poet James Joyce once said, “A man’s error’s are his portals of discovery.” While I agree with Joyce in concept, in reality, we all want to make as few mistakes as possible – particularly as they relate to our careers. Especially during this time of uncertainty, with many firms imploding and others consolidating, it has become even more important for advisors to carefully consider career moves. Fortunately, with enough knowledge and counsel, there are ways to navigate the career path minefield and learn from the mistakes and missteps of those who have gone before us. Sometimes, though, that’s easier said than done.
By Mindy Diamond, WealthManagement.com – In March, Peter Sargent stunned the wirehouse community by leaving Merrill Lynch to launch Sargent Wealth Management at the Philadelphia, Pa.-based regional firm Janney Montgomery Scott. Sargent, who is 42, worked at Merrill for two decades, and had just begun in January a term as Chairman of Merrill’s esteemed national Advisory Council to Management (ACTM), which advises Merrill management on advisory issues. His career has so far been littered with accomplishments. During his years at Merrill, he was frequently named to Barron’s Top 1,000 financial advisors; in 2006 at the age of 38, he was named among the “Top 40 Advisors Under 40″; and he has often been interviewed by national media outlets for his financial acumen.
By Mindy Diamond, WealthManagement.com – James and Nancy, a wirehouse team in a southeastern city, began looking around for new digs in 2008 but it took them a few years to make the leap. James and Nancy had been at a regional firm that was ultimately acquired by their wirehouse in the early part of the decade. Together, James and Nancy generate around $1 million in annual production. While they never would have chosen to move to a wirehouse on their own, given their aversion to additional layers of management and red tape, they tried to make it work at first.
