Independent BDs

HighTower has expanded its West Coast market by picking up an independent team with $400 million in assets in Bellevue, Wash.

Record quarterly profits of $122.7 million were boosted in part by the performance of the regional firm's private client group.

Optimism abounds in an increasingly crowded market for servicing breakaway advisors.

Securities America will acquire assets of a Missouri-based full-service broker-dealer with 368 advisors and $2.4 billion in client assets.

Two financial advisors have left Wells Fargo to join Raymond James Financial Services, the regional's independent broker/dealer.

Despite their smaller size, these boutique IBDs outperform on several desirable metrics.

Founders of IHT Management hope to create a wirehouse-like alternative to lure other advisors.

As part of its FP50 special report, Financial Planning tracks the breakdown between fee and commission revenue. Here are the IBDs with the highest percentage of fee revenue.

Many independent advisors say they consider themselves fiduciaries, even if they aren’t legally obligated to adhere to that standard of care. So why are so many opposed to the DoL's expected proposal?

Dalton Strategic Investment Services, a smaller broker-dealer firm with almost $1 billion in client assets, has joined Securities America as a super-OSJ.

With the acquisition of broker-dealer McAdams Wright Ragen complete, Baird has grown to more than 800 advisors and $125 billion in assets.

As part of the FP50, Financial Planning tracks the percentage of reps producing more than $150,000. Many of the firms with the greatest number of top producers, it turns out, are smaller boutique firms.

Opponents argue that the long time horizon and heated controversy could convince the White House to back away from the retirement plan proposal.

Here are the smartest tips and tricks we’ve heard recently.

For clients, is one type of firm, business model or fee structure better than another?

Clarity in strategic vision and compensation boosts advisor satisfaction, according to a new J.D. Power & Associates study.

Every year we run the numbers to see how the top 10 list would change if the B-D networks aggregated their revenue numbers. This year we added another twist, looking at how the rankings would be affected if the new RCS network had in fact been put together before the end of the year.

High compensation tends to draw top producers. So how do advisors fare at the various independent broker-dealers? The FP50 tracks payout across the top firms; click through to see the independent B-Ds with the highest average payout.

Dedicating enough time and conducting the proper amount of due diligence is the best way to ensure where you're going is a better fit than where you've been.

Lebenthal & Co. said it will exit the municipal public finance underwriting and institutional sales business and shift those resources to its wealth management division.