According to InvestmentNews Advisors on the Move database, the Big 4 wirehouses saw near historic lows in advisor turnover during the past 12 months ending March 31.
Merrill Lynch hired the most net new advisors over the 12 month period (517) and MSSB shed the most (340) UBS had 56 fewer advisors while Wells Fargo added 117 new advisors. 544 financial advisors changed firms and had $76.8 billion in combined client assets at the time of their departures.
So, what does it all mean as far as recruiters are concerned?
Well, it is a “representative sample” of overall recruiting activity in the industry, but does not include all data on advisors moving among firms. The data is based on recruiting moves that were made public or disclosed to InvestmentNews by industry sources.
Noteworthy is UBS who recruited the most new advisors (74) and added the greatest amount of assets among the firms in the database…(who says they are looking to sell its U.S. wealth management business?) And Merrill generally does not disclose new hires according to company spokeswoman Selena Morris.
Add to this the fact that advisors who leave are usually announced by the firms that hire them and so the database has more information on Merrill’s departing advisors and less on its incoming ones. Merrill did add more advisors than it lost in each of the past five quarters.
AND, emerging firms such as CapTrust Financial Advisors and Dynasty Financial Partners LLC were involved in moves of some of the largest advisors last year.
Ok, so if you can make sense of all this, what can recruiters conclude? Revolving door is still revolving.