Going independent

These mega brokers managed $18 billion in assets at their previous firms.

Here’s what the two seemingly contradictory trends mean for advisors.

Bruce Keebeck Lee has repeatedly been ranked as a top advisor by both Barron’s and The Financial Times, but he was fired in April for a failure to file compliance paperwork.

The No. 1 independent broker-dealer has grown beyond the wirehouses, but it added about 100 fewer advisors than expected from its major acquisition.

The move marks the fifth new office added by the hybrid RIA this year.

A client's alleged complaint sparked a dispute between the wirehouse and its former advisors.

The group is the latest in a long string of wirehouse departures.

Kestra Private Wealth Services CEO Rob Bartenstein says the new practice makes the fourth new office added this year by the hybrid RIA.

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

The trickle of brokers leaving wirehouses for greater independence is quietly becoming a flood.