For wealth managers and advisers, recruiting is a contact sport. But 'contact' is now a four-letter word
Firms pay retiring brokers for their clients' assets, but clients often take their business elsewhere.
Some define it as starting their own firm, while others insist it means having full control over investment products and client relationships
Firms like Schwab are raking in assets at a much faster clip than the big brokerages.
As big brokerages lose their competitive edge, regionals are offering a home to advisers who want to stay in the employee channel.
The best were former advisers themselves, but that may not be the case in the future.
Those who excel should be paid better, allowed to thrive and grow, in an aspirational, transparent way that will be admired by peers, competitors, shareholders and regulators.
Attempting to define all firms as wirehouse, independent or regional is as accurate as saying all ice cream is chocolate, vanilla or strawberry.
While the system provides access to up-to-date and accurate information on an adviser's record, it also publishes mere accusations, convenient settlements and decades-old misdemeanors.
In today's regulatory environment, every adviser is guilty until proven innocent.
