Those firms with a broker-dealer affiliation run into some challenges getting away from eat-what-you-kill, since the regulations don't readily support a team-based compensation model. I am not a compliance consultant or a lawyer, but we have seen a number of broker-dealer affiliated organizations develop successful team-based cultures. Talk with your broker-dealer (and your lawyer and compliance team) to see what your options are and how they can support you in aligning your rewards system with your vision for your organization.
As with every decision about how you structure and run your practice, the decision about how to pay your advisors is a very organization-specific one and the right answer for every firm is not the same. My biases are obvious, and are driven by the number of problems we have been hired by advisors to fix that are driven by a misalignment between their compensation plan and their desired structure, culture and business results. What is important is that you are deliberate and strategic in the development of your compensation plan, and not careless in adopting a model that is familiar but may be misaligned with who you want to be as a business.
Rebecca Pomering is a principal in Moss Adams LLP and consults with financial advisory practices on matters related to strategy, compensation, organizational design and financial management. She is co-author with Mark Tibergien of Practice Made Perfect.