Wirehouse advisors

At Merrill "it felt like we shifted away a little bit in recent years from the core focus of wealth management," advisor Matthew Spradlin explains.

Strengthened legal language recently added to bonus agreements will be removed, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Raymond James affiliated firm has been aggressively recruiting from wirehouses in recent months.

The brokers previously worked at Wells Fargo, which has suffered from attrition to smaller rivals over the past year.

“Serving the investment needs and opportunities unique to clients who reside outside of the U.S. has become increasingly complex,” the firm said.

“We’re going from a Civic to a Cadillac,” advisor says of the move.

The high-net-worth and ultrahigh-net-worth segments are growing globally “faster than we can grow advisors to cover them.”

The move is the latest in trend of advisors leaving wirehouses for smaller firms.

Changes to how the group educates advisors is just one of the many transformations in the offing.

Although it represents a big industry shift, it's not the end of the world, says former UBS advisor turned RIA owner Greg Hersch.