RIAs increasing payouts, employee benefits: TD survey

Registered investment advisers are starting to increase compensation levels at their firms — and are also spending more on employee benefits — according to a survey from TD Ameritrade Institutional.

The number of registered investment advisers boosting salaries and bonuses for themselves and their employees has nearly doubled in the past six months to 39%, from 20%, according to the TD survey, which was released today.

Those advisers who did increase spending chose to boost spending by an average of 22% and spent much of that money on technology and marketing, the survey showed.

TD Ameritrade — which canvassed 500 RIAs in April — also discovered that 68% of advisers had increased their client bases over the preceding six months.

Because of this growth, the number of advisers who said they are spending more on employee benefits is up 50% from six months ago. Also, the number of advisers spending more on training is up 32% in the past six months, while technology is up by 17%, and staffing is up by 16% from six months ago.

In a indication of the turnaround, 83% of all advisers surveyed said they had not been forced to cut costs in the past six months.