Steward Partners

The Raymond James affiliate has snagged more than two dozen recruits this year.

Two wirehouse veterans are the latest to join a fast growing independent firm.

John and Cary Kortze opened Steward Partners' 16th branch office.

While Raymond James and Stifel are on hiring sprees, Wells Fargo is still losing talent.

By the end of June, the Raymond James-affiliated firm says it will surpass its new partner additions for all of 2017.

Christopher Davis oversaw more than 190 brokers operating from eight offices while at Wells Fargo, according to his new employer.

The team is the latest in a stream of advisors who are leaving the wirehouse for smaller rivals.

One of the biggest notable losses came from Merrill Lynch, which lost a team managing $1 billion to the independent space.

Dean Hoover is the latest advisor to join the Raymond James-affiliated independent firm.

Frustrated by the limitations of working at a bank-owned brokerage, advisors Randy and Matthew Price opted to join the independent firm in Houston.

At Merrill "it felt like we shifted away a little bit in recent years from the core focus of wealth management," advisor Matthew Spradlin explains.

The Raymond James affiliated firm has been aggressively recruiting from wirehouses in recent months.

Coming off a strong recruiting year, Steward Partners has enticed three more Wells Fargo brokers.

The advisors made their career change just prior to UBS's exit from the Broker Protocol on December 1.

Morgan Stanley alone lost 11 teams managing about $7 billion after its abrupt exit from the protocol pact, according to recent hiring announcements.

The independent firm affiliated with Raymond James has been on a recruiting tear this year.

The wirehouses have lost teams overseeing more than $12 billion in client assets over the past month, according to recent hiring announcements.

The fast-growing independent firm has picked up more than two dozen advisors this year.

The move is the latest in a series of departures from the wirehouses to smaller independent firms.

"This is a window for these regional firms to really explode," says Rob Blevins, a recruiter in Dublin, Ohio.