July 8, 2021
Louis Diamond Quoted
By Peter Rawlings
When Morgan Stanley co-president Andy Saperstein described the firm as more than a wirehouse, he spoke to a broader shift taking place in the financial arena. The traditional large advisory firms are, after all, gradually shifting business models, changing training protocols and adding new channels in an attempt to expand beyond their usual footprint.
“That represents a shift in the types of advisors that they want to work with and perhaps a movement toward the traditional Swiss private banking model rather than the U.S.-based style,” says Louis Diamond, president of recruiting firm Diamond Consultants.
Merrill is not actively recruiting experienced talent, drawing instead from employees of parent Bank of America and Merrill Edge. That’s a marked difference from past practices as those advisors end up with different training and often don’t build their own businesses from scratch, says Diamond.
