With record assets and recruiting wins, Stifel finishes Q2 strong

After a slow start to the year, Stifel reported a record second quarter for its wealth management division, including the biggest financial advisor recruiting haul the firm has managed in nearly a decade.

The St. Louis-based firm added a total of 82 advisors to its wealth management business in the second quarter, the highest quarterly recruitment figure since the fourth quarter of 2015. That headcount figure includes 36 experienced advisors from B. Riley with total trailing 12-month production of $20 million. An additional 46 advisors, including 21 experienced advisors with total trailing 12-month production of $31 million, also joined the firm in the second quarter.

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On Wednesday's earnings call, Stifel CEO Ron Kruszewski said that recruiting at the firm has accelerated in 2025.

"In the first half alone, we brought in 66 experienced advisors with $63 million in production. That includes a major team from B. Riley and 30 organic crews with $43 million in production, many in the $1 million-plus category," Kruszewski said. "For perspective, in all of 2024, we added 50 experienced advisors for $37 million in production. These highly productive advisors bring more client assets, and those assets are increasingly fee-based, which drives more stable recurring revenue from asset management and net interest income."

In the first quarter of this year, the firm saw its advisor headcount shrink for the third straight quarter, down to 2,340 total advisors. The surge in recruiting for the most recent quarter suggests that the firm has broken that trend, but because Stifel stopped reporting total advisor headcounts this quarter, it's not possible to confirm.

Kruszewski attributed the firm's recruitment success in part to its industry-leading advisor satisfaction, with Stifel taking the No. 1 spot for the third year in a row on J.D. Power's employee-channel advisor satisfaction ranking.

A strong second-quarter finish

Stifel's wealth management division ended the second quarter with record net revenue, up nearly 6% year over year to $846 million. Recruitment has helped that figure, but Kruszewski said broader shifts in the markets played a significant role.

"On our last earnings call back in April, I noted that uncertainty around tariffs and the so-called Big Beautiful Bill have created headwinds for the market," Kruszewski said. "But I said then that if we got clarity on these issues, conditions could improve quickly. And that's exactly what happened."

Record revenue was partially offset by a 7.5% increase in total expenses, largely driven by an increase in compensation expenses. Pretax net income for the quarter grew 2.3%, to $306 million.

Total client assets hit a record $516.5 billion, up 9% year over year. Fee-based assets saw even stronger growth, up 15% year over year to $206.3 billion. 

"Investor sentiment improved significantly in the last two months of the quarter as greater clarity on tariff and tax policy emerged," Kruszewski said. "The S&P 500 rallied to 1,000 points since our last call, fueling record client assets in wealth management and sparking a rebound in M&A and capital markets activity. As a result, we exited the quarter with far more momentum than we started the quarter with. If conditions hold, we're positioned for a strong second half."