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Financial Advisor IQ a Financial Times Service

Are Advisors Giving Up Some Degree of Independence? Firms and Recruiters Disagree

17:40 09 September in In the News by rafferty

September 6, 2019 By Mrinalini Krishna, Financial Advisor IQ Though the desire for independence among advisors remains strong, a growing number of advisors are moving back on the independence spectrum, say executives at some of the large broker-dealer firms. “If you think about the industry, you have the employee side and then you have the independent side. And then you have the RIA side. And usually people sort of moved down that spectrum in one way. But it has been interesting to see some of those firms come back from having their own RIA or having their own broker-dealer to be part of an independent channel,” says Jodi Perry, president of Raymond James’ independent contractor division. And Raymond James is not the only firm that has seen this apparent trend. Rich Steinmeier, an LPL Financial managing...

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The Dark Side of Broker-Dealer Scale: Pain for Advisors

16:16 09 September in Articles Written by Jon Henschen by rafferty

September 5, 2019 By Jon Henschen, ThinkAdvisor Larger broker-dealers consistently tout their scale as a reason to join them, because greater asset levels bring greater profitability, which enables them to bring more to advisors. On the surface, this sounds logical. But when you do some digging, you discover some firms that can afford to give the most can be guilty at times of price gouging, cost cutting and conflict of interest with advisors wanting to adhere to a fiduciary standard. One of the greatest cost savings larger firms don’t talk about is labor. You’ve probably seen a steady stream of news releases and promotional materials highlighting a broker-dealer’s new “services.” However, you rarely hear about servicebecause that is often the weak link. Having high staffing levels is not a guarantee that the service level always will...

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Cetera Financial Group adds 1,000 advisers, $19 billion in assets so far in 2019

18:38 15 August in In the News by rafferty

August 14, 2019 By Bruce Kelly, Investment News Cetera Financial Group is having a banner year in attracting new advisers to its platform, with recruits ranging in experience and production from sophisticated wealth managers to those relatively new to the financial advice industry. A network of six broker-dealers, Cetera said on Wednesday it has added over 1,000 registered representatives year-to-date and reached a record $19.1 billion in newly recruited assets under administration. A good portion of those advisers, more than 400, come from Cetera's acquisition earlier this year of certain assets of Foresters Financial's U.S. broker-dealer and advisory business. And another chunk is CPA, bank or financial institution reps or apprentice-type wealth managers — groups of advisers who don't carry revenue with them to a new firm, said Adam Antoniades, president of Cetera Financial Group,...

Financial Advisor IQ a Financial Times Service

Why Fewer But Bigger Advisors Are Switching Firms This Year

16:08 14 August in In the News by rafferty

August 14, 2019 By Mrinalini Krishna, Financial Advisor IQ Big teams with long tenures are leaving big-name shops, according to experts who say wirehouses continued to lose advisors in the second quarter of 2019. Recruiters and other industry watchers say that for the first half of the year, recruitment activity slowed for the wealth management industry but attrition of larger teams from wirehouses was evident. For the three months ending in June, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, UBS and Wells Fargo all saw their advisor ranks shrink. Larger broker-dealers, on the other hand, had a mixed bag for the quarter, though recruitment numbers for the first six months of the year look to be up for those firms. “There’s been some of the largest-ever transitions away from wirehouses this year. What’s notable is most of those groups...