Author: rafferty

Hybrid Hustle

by Diana Britton and featured in Registered Rep
April, 2011:

Independent broker/dealers have lately been ramping up their efforts to attract hybrid advisors, launching new recruiting efforts and rolling out integrated commission and fee-based platforms and hybrid-specific services. Meanwhile, two major custodians released reports about the importance of the hybrid market — defined as those firms that operate an independent RIA and have a broker/dealer affiliation — in the past several weeks.

Hybrid advisors still represent a small segment of the business, accounting for only about 5 percent of all advisors, but that number should rise to around 8 percent by 2014, according to Cerulli Associates. Cerulli projects total hybrid headcount will grow 11.8 percent this year to about 15,830 advisors.

“Broker/dealers who do not carefully evaluate the hybrid opportunity run the risk of being at a competitive and economic disadvantage,” said Jim Roth,

Wall Street Financial Group’s Joe Richard – It’s a Flexible, Selective Recruiting Environment

by John Sullivan and featured in AdvisorOne
March, 2011:

“The difference is we’re smaller,” says Joe Richard when asked what, specifically, Wall Street Financial Group does better than anyone else. Their size, he asserts, allows for a flexibility and selectiveness that’s difficult to find at a larger firm. And of course it’s about the culture; a family atmosphere where he knows each rep and knows them well. This means they don’t look to traditional recruiting sources, and that suits them just fine.

Richard, a veteran of the wholesaling side of the business, has been with the firm for nine years. He sat down with Investment Advisor for a candid chat about life at a small,