April 17, 2025
Jason Diamond Quoted
By Tobias Salinger
In the dynamics that industry recruiters call the “push and pull” of wealth management firms’ fight to win talent, top financial advisors represent the main prize up for grabs. And several thousands choose to change their brokerage or registered investment advisory firms each year. But they do so for any number of reasons on a wide range of timelines.
Advisors “have a tremendous amount of power” as the managers of the client assets sought by an expanding array of firms, said Jason Diamond, an executive vice president and senior consultant with advisor recruiting firm Diamond Consultants. And those firms now offer more options than ever in response to the complex mix of factors spurring advisors’ moves today, Those include recruiting bonuses, to be sure, but also operational and technology resources and degrees of independence.
“This process needs to be iterative. I think advisors put a lot of pressure on themselves to nail it,” Diamond said. “The iterative process I believe in very much, because, ultimately, I think that’s how you home in on the right answer.”
The 9,615 experienced advisors who switched firms last year — about 800 per month — each did so “with their own ‘why,'” according to the latest annual tracking report by Diamond’s firm. Nevertheless, it and other recent research suggest that the shifts from one firm to another have remained relatively consistent in volume, with the key takeaway that wirehouses have sustained the largest net losses in recent years and independent brokerages and RIAs have gained the most. Regardless, most moves still involve advisor teams who traded in their previous company jerseys for another one in the same channel of the industry.
