The purpose of this research is to provide readers with a comprehensive understanding of financial advisor recruiting & the break-away brokers trend. Break-away brokers are generally defined as the successful captive (employee) financial advisors from the wirehouses, other national brokerage firms, regional brokerage firms, investment banks, private banks, retail banks, insurance companies, & even discount brokerage firms that choose to go independent, repositioning their businesses as independent advisors (independent reps and/or fee-based financial advisors (RIAs)).
That said, industry data is extremely sloppy, with many sources including financial advisors nudged out by their former employers due to low productivity (broken away brokers), other sources confusing data for financial advisor teams, financial advisors, & registered assistants, and almost all sources including captive advisors that move to other captive models and independent advisors that move to other independent models. Hence, the goal of this research is to accurately measure the narrowly defined break-away brokers trend of successful financial advisors moving from captive to independent models. This research leads to critical conclusions for Tiburon's coverage of wealth management markets & distribution channels, full-service brokerage firms, and independent advisors.
Historical Phases
This research addresses the historical phases of financial advisor recruiting & break-away brokers, including:
- Emergence Phase
- Early Broker Protocol Phase
- Increasing Financial Advisor Recruiting Pitches Phase
- Expanding Financial Advisor Recruiting Sources Phase
Migration Patterns
This research analyzes the four migration patterns for financial advisors moving firms, including:
- Captive-to-Captive
- Captive-to-Independent (Break-Away Brokers)
- Independent-to-Independent
- Independent-to-Captive
Break-Away Broker Destinations
Then, focusing only on break-away brokers, the research undertakes a destination analysis, including break-away broker platforms, independent broker/dealers, & custodians.
Financial Advisors Changing Firms
And finally, this research addresses the number of financial advisors changing firms and summarizes the sources and destinations of those financial advisors who move, including by channel & by firm.
Future Predictions
And this research makes several future predictions for financial advisor recruiting & break-away brokers, including:
- Continuing Moderate Size Financial Advisor Recruiting Trend
- Successful Financial Advisors to Continue to Dominate Financial Advisor Recruiting Assets Under Management & Administration Movement
- Independent Broker/Dealers to Continue to Lead Wirehouses & All Other Channels as Leading Source of Financial Advisor Recruiting
- Independent Broker/Dealers to Also Continue to Lead All Channels as Destination of Financial Advisor Recruiting
- Captive-to-Captive and Independent-to-Independent Financial Advisor Recruiting Migration Patterns to Remain Larger than Captive-to-Independent (Break-Away Brokers) Migration Pattern and Very Small Boomerang Migration Pattern
- Moderate Growth in the Captive-to-Independent (Break-Away Brokers) Financial Advisor Recruiting Migration Pattern
- Break-Away Broker Platforms to Continue to Capture Largest Captive-to-Independent (Break-Away Brokers) Financial Advisor Recruiting Moves