The latest contribution on the migration of brokers arrives in the form of a Cerulli Associates report–Advisor Migration–which estimates that $800 billion will be moving as advisors change firms. Wirehouses will have a net loss of $188 billion in assets, insurance and regional B/Ds will lose a total of $19 billion, while RIAs and dually registered advisors will gain the most assets.
In turn, the RIA custodians are not being passive. TD Ameritrade Institutional president Tom Bradley said in mid-September that his firm has seen a 24% increase in the number of breakaway brokers joining TD in the first six months of 2009, and TD has launched a Web-based Business Evaluator tool developed with ActiFi to help brokers make that decision.