Regional brokers boost head count by 2%

Regional broker-dealers are the only companies in the financial services industry that have added advisers in the past year, according to a study by Financial Research Corp. From March 31, 2009, through March 31 of this year, the number of advisers at regional broker-dealers jumped 2%, from 39,791 to 40,738, according to the firm's study. Regional broker-dealers have been aggressive with recruiting, said Bridget Bearden, the author of the study. “It seems like we are always hearing about regional broker-dealers taking teams of experienced professionals from the wirehouses,” she said. Some of the more aggressive recruiters in the independent-broker-dealer world have been Robert W. Baird & Co. Inc., RBC Wealth Management and Stifel Financial Corp., Ms. Bearden said. During that one-year period, head count dropped in every other adviser. Most notably, banks saw a 38% decrease. Insurance agencies saw a 21% decline and wirehouses saw a 14% decrease. Most surprising, however, is that RIAs lost 7% of its adviser cohort, to 29,500 to 26,577. “Everyone projected that the RIA channel would be the biggest channel for growth and it still is,” Ms. Bearden said. “But what's happening now is that advisers that want to go independent are joining existing RIA firms and many firms are merging.” The RIA industry is still growing, in terms of addition of assets under management, she said. For the past three years, RIAs and regional-broker dealers are the only channels to have seen growth. RIA staffing grew 12%, while regional broker-dealer grew 24%, according to FRC. Overall, the adviser market has experience an 11% decrease in head count in the past three years.