Waddell & Reed is planning to first offer employees voluntary layoff packages next month, and depending on how that goes, will hand out pink slips the following week, the Kansas City Star reports. The goal is to reduce payroll costs by 15%.

In addition, the firm is asking executives to cut back on travel and entertainment, consolidating some mutual funds and reducing marketing and advertising expenditures.

Waddell first informed employees of the plan, which will not involve its financial advisers, last Thursday.

With assets under management now at $47 billion, down a whopping 21% from $59.9 billion at the end of September, Waddell CEO Hank Herrmann quirped, "The market's taken a cleaver to our assets under management."

Originally published in Money Management Executive.