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.

More advisors can’t ignore the call to go independent.

The firm left Kestra for PKS as part of the move as increasingly large breakaways fuel the independent movement.

The 2004 industrywide accord is rocked by changes its founders did not foresee.

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

Which wirehouse offers advisors the most freedom? Which offers the least? And when should advisors shun the channel and break away?

A massive acquisition also helped boost the No. 1 IBD’s headcount by 833 advisors year-over-year to 15,210.

The bank’s latest retreat from wealth management will move 51 advisors to the independent space under Woodbury Financial.

Advisors may be upset due to the high-handed attitudes of the larger firms, but pulling down six zeroes a year can offset a lot of irritation, says On Wall Street’s annual recruiters roundtable.

Bill Hamm’s Independent Financial Partners has grown more than fivefold in 10 years with the No. 1 IBD.

The firm was defined by a culture of “no, no, no,” a top headhunter says as part of On Wall Street’s annual recruiters roundtable.