Indie Firms Sweeten Deals For Recruits
by Bruce Kelly and featured in Investment News January, 2007: New York - Faced with intense competition for financial advisers and growing transition costs, an increasing number of independent-contractor broker-dealers over the past year have boosted the amount of money they give to representatives and advisers to switch firms. The broker-dealers that recently have increased the transition or bonus money include top firms such as LPL Financial Services of Boston and San Diego, Commonwealth Financial Network of Waltham, Mass., and Cambridge Investment Research Inc. of Fairfield, Iowa, according to executives and recruiters. In the past, those firms and others gave recruits transition packages of 2% to 3% of their prior 12 months’ production. Those packages, which have various structures, are now as high as 8% to 10%, executives said. Meanwhile, more independent registered reps are...