Ex-UBS Chief Grano on Wirehouses: ‘They’ve Lost Their Way’

“I see advisors getting very upset and disenchanted – at least the ones I speak with – and they’ve moving to independent –contractor roles, which some refer to as RIAs, because they don’t see any value from the institution,” shared Grano, who is now head of the consulting firm Centurion Holdings. “That’s the institution’s fault, not the advisor’s.”  

Recently, Sallie Krawcheck (left), head of Bank of America-Merrill Lynch’s wealth-management operations, said that she believes the breakaway-broker trend is over.

However, executives at independent firms – including Bill Van Law, who heads business development for Raymond James Financial – disagree.  He saysthere were 56 advisors at the independent broker-dealer’s recent conference, including many from the wirehouse firms looking to break away. “Of the advisors recruited by RJFS over the last two years, more than 75 percent came from wirehouses or employee firms,” Van Law said in a May 3 interview.

“Because of the dissatisfaction of the better financial advisors, you see them leaving and going independent,” Grano said in a second interview Wednesday on CNBC. “Most of the firms look alike in their approach to the business – they’ve violated trust and good management in the last several years across the board and that has cost them a lot of credibility between them and their financial advisors. For clients, they say, ‘If you can’t manage your own finances, how can you manage mine?’ ”