Brookstreet reps may be Wedbush-bound

Scott Brooks, son of Stan Brooks, the founder of the ailing Brookstreet Securities Corp., last month jumped to Wedbush Morgan Securities Inc. of Los Angeles and invited Brookstreet's representatives to join him. Of 650 reps and employees at Brookstreet, Wedbush hopes to land more than 100, said Ed Wedbush, chief executive at Wedbush Morgan. “We're recruiting, like other firms, some of their brokers and bond traders,” he said. Wedbush Morgan already has about 40 independent contractor reps out of 260 total brokers, Mr. Wedbush said. But many Brookstreet reps don't know much about Wedbush, said Larry Papike, a San Diego-based recruiter, “So I think [Brookstreet] brokers really started looking around for other solutions,” he said. In June, hammered by exposure to a risky type of mortgage-backed security, Irvine, Calif.-based Brookstreet told reps and advisers that “disaster” had struck, igniting speculation that the firm would close or be acquired. Securities America Inc. of Omaha, Neb., and J.P. Turner & Co. LLC of Atlanta have picked up a number of Brookstreet reps, Mr. Papike said.