Most of the company's new hires come from broker-dealers, and it emphasizes that they don't all have an A.G. Edwards pedigree. But it's not a shock that ex-A.G. Edwards advisors would gravitate to Benjamin F. Edwards & Co.
"A.G. Edwards always had a great reputation based on how the Edwards family took care of their advisors," says Larry Papike, president of Cross-Search, a recruiting firm in the independent broker-dealer space that hasn't done any work with Benjamin F. Edwards & Co. "A lot of those advisors missed that when A.G. Edwards went away."
As for that event, a non-family member took the leadership reins of A.G. Edwards after Tad Edwards' father retired in 2001, and the company's decision to sell itself to Wachovia occurred because it didn't think it had the scale to compete with bigger Wall Street firms that had bulked up in size and scope in the post-Glass-Steagall Act era. Tad Edwards was on the board of directors at the time, but he's reticent to dwell on the decision that turned the family business into somebody else's subsidiary.
"I think there are certain things that happen in life that turn out to be an opportunity of a lifetime," he says. "What we're doing now is an opportunity of a lifetime."
Edwards says the new company has the financial and operational wherewithal to remain independent. And he's pleased that his 14-year-old son, Benjamin F. Edwards V, is interested in the business and in carrying on the family tradition. "We're excited about that, and so is he," he says.
--Jeff Schlegel