Why wirehouse advisors think independent brokers are a joke

Yesterday’s Investment News had an article entitled: “Broker-Dealer Breakdown: Reps Producing > 100K as percentage of total reps”. (View ranking here.) The chart then shows the top ten independent BDs as ranked by this criteria.
Here we are, in the midst of a trend to “breakaway Advisors,” where more and more Advisors are thinking of places to work outside of the big 4 firms. According to Discovery database, of all the wirehouse Advisors who left in January 2009, 78% of them went to another wirehouse. By January 2010, that figure had dropped to under 30%. Earlier in the week, InvestmentNews wrote that recruiting at Independent Broker Dealers was down dramatically from 2009. How do we reconcile these two different views?
First, any comparison between 2009 and 2010 in terms of recruiting is a joke. I have the misfortune of being a Mets fan and I therefore compare every Mets team to the 1986 vintage; I’m setting myself up for disappointment. If you were a Headhunter or a firm that capitalized on the turmoil in the industry in 2009, I wish you congratulations. Tell your grandchildren about it. It ain’t happening again.
So, though on a percentage basis more Advisors of all sizes are considering independence, there will ALWAYS be fewer moving than in 2009. Sorry folks: I’ve been waiting 25 seasons for another 1986 Mets season and you’ll be waiting longer for a 2009 recruiting environment. (Check out advisers who have changed firms this year, and sort by their assets under management.)
But let’s face it, it’s a reasonably recent phenomena that substantive wirehouse Advisors (500k and up) would even consider independence. Platform differences, aided by cheaper technology costs, have been minimized. Wirehouse brands have been tainted. Yet, after all that, Investment News feels that it’s newsworthy to publish a chart showing a ranking based on exceeding 100k in production???!!!!
750k producer, on the phone with Sarch today: “What a joke. I always thought that those indy guys were Mickey Mouse. Bragging about the percentage of reps you have who are doing more than 100k is like bragging that you remembered to brush your teeth this morning.”
$1 million+ producer, to Sarch today: “They must have many Advisors who do this part-time, as a hobby. How can their platforms be truly as complete as what I have when their own Advisors are not serious about the business?”
There are many, many serious independent Advisors who are big producers, who are skilled and passionate about what they do, as good as the best Advisors at the biggest firms. However, only at some point in the future, when we see the same chart with 400k as the benchmark, and the percentages look close to the wirehouse percentage (50%?), only then will we see the breakaway trend grow from mere curiosity to action; from a trickle to a true flood.