Wirehouses

Wells Fargo financial advisor John Handley, number 37 on On Wall Street’s list, remembers getting that very first client and the cadre of business relationships he’s had for years.

For Pedro Marti, who nabs the number 38 slot on On Wall Street’s 2012 list, serving as a financial advisor at Wells Fargo is the perfect blend of financial analysis and personal interaction.

Wells Fargo financial advisor Matthew Fryar, who ranks number 39 on On Wall Street’s 2012 list, says providing personalized services has meant a heavy emphasis on looming tax changes.

For employees at the biggest Wall Street banks, 2012 brought a humbling post-crisis reality of job cuts, lower pay and tarnished reputations. For investors, it was a happier story.

In a round of fall hiring, the firm added eight advisors with a total of $6.4 million in production.

Three industry veterans with 80 years combined experience have joined Raymond James in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Financial crises will not be a suitable excuse for oversight in suitability according to the regulator’s decision against Merrill Lynch.

Two teams with over $1 million in production have joined Merrill Lynch in St. Paul, Minn., and Ithaca, N.Y.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has refocused on growing fee-based and banking business and boosting client retention.

The husband-wife team of Joe and Penny DiRago have been hired by Wells Fargo in San Antonio.

Recruiters question if the new compensation model will be enough to sway advisors.

The firm has modified payouts to encourage asset growth and will allow advisors to buy into company stock as part of a deferred compensation program.

Wall Street’s cost cuts and dismissals, which have helped erase more than 300,000 financial- industry jobs in the past two years, are far from over.

In the first half of 2012, bank and thrift holding companies generated $59.4 billion in wealth management income, down 6.6% from the year before.

Morgan Stanley Wealth Management has added eight financial advisors from rival firms Merrill Lynch and Barclays.

The New York City based wealth advisory firm appointed Lyle LaMothe as Non-Executive Chairman of the board and Greg Franks as a managing partner and president. Chris Lappas joined the firm as the chief operating officer.

Ronald Greenidge, the former UBS AG managing director fired for gross misconduct in his supervision of convicted trader Kweku Adoboli, sued the bank claiming it treated him more harshly than others because he’s black.

Gathering the information needed to make a career move and hiding that research from a current firm can be enough to make some advisors decide to forget it. That’s just where The Advisor Center, an anonymous online recruiting community that launches Monday, comes into play.

The average production at wirehouses is 40% higher than that of banks, and yet those advisors don't have an existing customer base. Why is that?

Merrill Lynch has snapped up 10 financial advisors from rival wirehouse firms who managed a total of $1.07 billion in assets and had $7.7 million in fees and commissions.