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imageWe’re seeing a “flip-flop” in the financial recruiting arena lately. Big brokerage firms are now knocking on the doors of “independent” brokers, and that marks a change for both parties.

During the financial crisis, firms like BofA’s Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley held on to top advisors with big retention bonuses and deferred-pay recruiting packages that keep advisors from leaving.

Obviously, this has narrowed the field for good recruits. (There has always been an undertone in the big brokerages that independent advisors could not meet the terms of client assets and production of the big wirehouses, and conversely, the independents shunned the bureaucracies of Wall Street firms.)

Reuters reported on May 19, that executives at Merrill have told recruiters to include LPL Financial and other independent firms in the recruiting pool, and they have held at least one seminar this year for independent advisors hoping to change the misconceptions that big firms and independents have about each other.

According to Reuters, Sallie Krawcheck, Bank of America’s global wealth chief, reported that Merrill recruited 25 advisors from independent firms last year, and a spokeswoman for MSSB confirmed they have been encouraging recruiters to include independent advisors in their searches.

So, will the wirehouses continue to “lure” the independents? Time will tell, but they do appeal to big producers who have complex product and service needs…and they do pay the big bucks.