Articles / Resources

The Top 5 Reasons Advisors Change Broker-Dealers

00:00 01 April in Articles Written by Jon Henschen by rafferty

by Jonathan Henschen, CFS and featured in Producers Web April, 2006: Changing broker/dealers is a choice of last resort. Just the thought of it can cause an advisor’s guts to churn. For an advisor even to consider changing broker/dealers means that the pain threshold has reached disturbingly high levels. The causes of this pain are many, but here in descending order are what I’ve found to be the top five reasons advisors find it necessary to make that decision. 1. Unhappy in their current relationship Frequently, relationship issues are caused by consolidation of insurance companies and banks, where significant management changes have altered advisors’ home office contacts. For example, when an insurance company buys your broker/dealer, you’ll experience a six-month to one-year honeymoon period where things are left alone while the new owners decide...

Independent Broker/Dealers – Top 25 Indie Firms Hit $9.16B in Revenue

00:00 01 April in In the News by rafferty

by Bruce Kelly and featured in Investment News April, 2006: New York - The top 25 independent-contractor broker-dealers continued their growth last year and hit $9.16 billion in revenue. The pace, however, was off from that of 2004. The top 25 firms saw gross revenue increase 18.8% last year, down from an increase of 21% in 2004, according to InvestmentNews' annual survey of broker-dealer firms. Leading the way was LPL Financial Services, the industry leader as measured by the number of affiliated registered representatives and gross revenue. LPL, whose broker-dealer is Linsco/Private Ledger Corp. of Boston and San Diego, recorded $1.39 billion in gross revenue last year, an increase of 21.9% over that of 2004. The firm had 6,454 affiliated registered reps at the end of last year. Almost "18% growth for broker-dealers is great growth," said...

Seven Recruiting Sins

00:00 01 March in Articles Written by Jon Henschen by rafferty

by Jonathan Henschen, CFS and featured in Broker Dealer Journal March, 2006: My first year recruiting was baptism by fire. No formalized training or guidance, just get out there and figure it out. As with any learning curve, however, I quickly learned what works and what results only in futility. The purpose of the “Seven Recruiting Sins” is to share principles, practices and behaviors that broker/dealers can use to avoid mistakes and dramatically improve their recruiting results. 1) Ignoring Advisor Prospects There was a time when I’d go along and MC home office visits by prospective advisors with an insurance-based broker/dealer. My first couple of prospects spent about 20 minutes with the B/D’s president. By the fourth visit, the president decided he was too busy to spend time with mere prospects. The trouble was,...

More Indie Brokers Bulk Up On Recruiters

00:00 01 February in In the News by rafferty

by Bruce Kelly and featured in Investment News February, 2006: New York - Inspired by the tremendous growth of Linsco/Private Ledger Corp. and its ability to recruit brokers and advisers, a number of independent-contractor broker-dealers are following the industry pacesetter's recruiting model by building staff in order to snag brokers. Linsco's affiliated sales force has soared, reaching 6,454 registered brokers and advisers at the end of last year, up from 4,700 in 2003 - an increase of 37%. The San Diego and Boston based company and its top executives reaped the rewards of that growth when it was valued at $2.5 billion in a sale of 60% of the broker-dealer to two private equity firms. Now other independent-contractor broker-dealers apparently are taking a page from Linsco's handbook and hiring regional recruiting staffs to troll...