Indie Winners: America’s Top Independent Brokerages
by Diana Britton and featured in Registered Rep June, 2011: Whatever happened to the indie exodus? The storied legions of breakaway brokers that were said to be fleeing Wall Street's giant bureaucratic brokerages and heading to the promised land of independent firms where they could control their own destinies, select whatever products they wanted for their clients, and leave behind all of those knotty conflicts of interest? Yes, it is a phenomenon that has been widely debated in the financial services industry as well as in these pages. The Merrills and Morgan Stanleys of the world say it was never an exodus, the migration is over, and it was only those advisors who couldn't make it in the cutthroat wirehouse world who crossed over to the independent side of the business anyway —...