Hightower

The group opted to join HighTower, which has added nine teams so far this year.

"It's always nice when one poker player folds and it's down to two or three players," one recruiter says.

Sales of smaller firms dominated transactions and banks re-emerged as buyers during the first quarter.

The platform provider will now offer to buy a percentage of an advisory firm's revenue.

UBS and Merrill lose four advisers in HighTower's seventh deal of the year.

The RIA's parent company is set to buy a very large adviser aggregator. If completed, it would be the biggest transaction of the year.

HighTower and Dynasty added big platform clients as wirehouse brokers continued to flee.

The RIA is negotiating to buy a portion of Wealth Trust. It may also be facing the loss of a second top executive.

A close look at what's driven the advisers at the top of this year's ranking.

The advisers oversaw nearly $900 million in combined AUM, and moved to Morgan Stanley, Raymond James and HighTower.