"The key to success in this deal was finding the right partner," says Haig Ariyan, president of the firm's new Alex. Brown division.

Set the firm’s tone through these imperatives and give a copy to employees in the final interview.

The regional firm's new recruits have experience in designing corporate equity compensation plans.

Advisers shouldn’t let fear of the unknown stop them from breaking out on their own.

Here are three important factors to take into consideration when breaking away.

By all means put a plan in place, but flexibility is key in case circumstances change.

Going independent is alluring, but it also has its quirks. For instance, there is usually no support staff. Finding new clients while properly serving existing ones is “a juggling act,” CFP Tom Fredrickson says.

Three advisers joined the firm's Advisor Select channel, where they are employees but can make additional business-decisions for their practice.

The firm's newest recruits come from boutique brokerage J.P. Morgan.

How Todd Sacks joined an elite ranking of wealth management supervisors.

The firm's newest recruits generated $3.6 million in annual revenue.

Planners who are agile enough can easily decide on what's best for them: switching to wirehouses, other large brokerages or going independent. Also, moving quickly may help them land the best deals, says a recruiting consultant.

The group includes two recruits who began their careers in the late 1970s.

The recruit joined a practice opened by a former complex director from the same wirehouse.

Sure — if you can identify duties that hit these four categories.

The wirehouse advisers generated a combined $2 million in annual revenue at the time of their departure.

The veteran supervisor got his start at Merrill Lynch in the early 1980s.

Plus, Benjamin F. Edwards and Ameriprise each add recruits with more than $600M in combined AUM, and Morgan loses a $500M group.

The advisers, one of whom is a former football coach, are among the first to join the wirehouse since UBS unveiled sweeping changes to its comp plan.

It begins with recognizing that this is a critical investment for succession planning and cultivating the next generation of clients.