The brokerage industry this year continues to see cuts to staff, and Osaic last month cut fewer than 10 jobs across the giant broker-dealer and registered investment advisor network.
With the uncertainty caused by President Donald Trump’s global trade and tariff battles, some large financial advice firms this year have been ready to cut staff and potentially reduce costs. Those firm include Morgan Stanley, Edward Jones and Cetera Financial Group. LPL Financial Holdings has also reduced staff at broker-dealers acquired in its acquisition of Atria.
As 2024 came to a close, Osaic, one of the largest broker-dealer networks in the industry with 11,000 financial advisors, like its competitors was believed to be facing losses this year to its 2,500 home office staff and support workers. Osaic has more than $700 billion in client assets.
The firm’s 14-month consolidation of eight disparate broker-dealers under one roof, Osaic Wealth, was coming to an end, making the loss of jobs likely, executives said at the time.
"Fewer than 10 employees were impacted by workforce changes at Osaic in July,” wrote a company spokesperson in an email Tuesday morning. “This was part of a periodic review we conduct to ensure we have the right balance of efficiency, expertise, skills, and agility to meet our strategic goals.”
“These decisions are never made lightly, and we are grateful to all current and former Osaic employees for their contributions," the spokesperson wrote.
Industry news website CityWire on Monday reported the July round of job cuts at Osaic.
Firms typically leave financial advisors alone when they decide to cut staff and reduce costs; advisors drive and create revenue and are therefore directly linked to a financial advice firm’s bottom line.
“It appears that Osaic has cut between 50 to 75 jobs so far this year, including those in July,” said a senior industry executive, who spoke privately to InvestmentNews about the matter. “A lot of those were in training and education of advisors.”
Most notably, two chief compliance officers, John Cooney on Osaic’s broker-dealer side, and Iryna Northrip, on its RIA side, have also recently left the firm.
The job cuts and loss of senior compliance executives comes less than a year after Osaic announced a management shakeup.
The firm had a management reorganization last August, seeing Jen Roche, the marketing executive and architect of the Osaic rebranding, jump unexpectedly to rival LPL Financial.
The moves boosted the authority of Tim Hodge and Dimple Shah in Osaic's management structure. Hodge, who was executive vice president, technology and operations solutions, left Osaic in February.
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