The fact is most clients follow their advisors who move.

According to a recent report by Aite Group, financial advisors take an average of 62% of their clients with them to their new firms, and half of advisors leaving take more than three-quarters of their books with them.(05/21/09 Financial-Planning.com)

So, the point being that the major wirehouses are getting hit hard as the mid-range producers are fleeing out the door. With no retention bonuses, they are on the move to banks and regionals taking billions of assets with them. And they’re getting snatched up.

We’ve seen this at our recruiting firm, and have placed hundreds of financial advisors with those banks and firms who are willing to change their recruiting strategies to a more aggressive approach.

The time to do it is NOW while the big houses are trying to stabilize. Because once they do stabilize, and they will, the window of opportunity will close.