One of the most closely watched report cards in the fight to recruit and retain financial advisor talent offered a fresh reminder of how critical that competition is to the industry's future.
Commonwealth Financial Network, Stifel, Raymond James, Edward Jones and Cambridge Investment Research drew the highest scores on research and consulting firm J.D. Power's annual advisor satisfaction study, the
In an indication of how seriously the largest wealth management firms take J.D. Power's study,
"There's an intense demand now to attract and retain good financial advisors. Most firms are very interested in making sure that their advisors are very happy and going to stay there," Elzweig said. "These are very valuable employees. Each one is a mini revenue center, so firms want them to be happy with the whole team and want them to stay."
With so many
"The wealth management industry is experiencing a significant generational shift in which the demographics, ways of working and priorities of both clients and advisors are changing rapidly," Mike Foy, the managing director of J.D. Power's wealth management practice, said in a statement. "How firms manage this transformation and the investments they make today in technology and branding will be critical to attracting, developing and retaining the next generation of advisors, and they will also set the stage for how their firms are perceived by the influx of new, younger clients now considering professional advice for the first time."
Amid the many dynamics that affect recruiting, the fact that Stifel "doesn't have an unwieldy size" enables an "ease of access" to senior management and other corporate staff and resources that appeals to many advisors, Elzweig said. For Stifel, this year marks its third in a row on top of the employee-channel advisor satisfaction rankings.
And Commonwealth — which is slated
"Since Commonwealth has been such a highly ranked firm consistently for so many years," Elzweig said, "they're going to come into the merger as demanding customers with high expectations. That's what I get from that."
Scroll down the slideshow below to see which firms came in at the top and bottom of J.D. Power's advisor satisfaction rankings in 2025.
For results from prior years, see our slideshows from
Note: The