Financial advisors who make the move to an independent channel are getting the best compensation increases of anyone in the industry, according to Fidelity Investments.
At the same time, the independent channels, including registered investment advisors and independent broker-dealers, gained the most advisors from those who made a move over the last five years. RIA firms and independent broker-dealers increased by 17 percentage points, going from 23 percent of all advisors to 40 percent between 2008 to 2013. Wirehouses lost the most, going from 49 percent of advisors to 38 percent.
Advisors who moved to an independent channel saw the greatest increase in compensation over the last five years. They had an increase of 36 percent to an average of $247,000 annually.
For all those who made a move, salaries rose 22 percent to an average of $310,000. For those who considered a change but did not act on it and those who never considered moving, average compensations increased by 17 percent each to $302,000 and $289,000 respectively.
The implications for those advisors changing firms or striking out on their own were laid out in the Fidelity Investments Insights on Independence Study released Wednesday. The study included responses from 783 advisors with at least $10 million in assets under management who changed firms (what Fidelity calls the movers), considered changing firms but did not make a move (the fence sitters), or never considered moving (the entrenched).
Despite the increases in compensation, work environment slightly outranked financial considerations for the reasons for moving (31 percent versus 29 percent.)
Family members seem to have a considerable influence on an advisor considering a firm move. For advisors who ended up moving, 40 percent had family members who encouraged the move and only 4 percent had family that discouraged the move. On the other hand, 23 percent of the families of the fence sitters discouraged the move and only 8 percent encouraged it.
“Advisors who made the move were happy they involved their family in the move,” says Sanjiv Mirchandani, president of National Financial, a Fidelity Investments company. “You need the support of your family and those who sat on the fence reported the family not being on board”
Almost nine out of 10 of those who moved reported being happy with the change, which is an extraordinarily high number, according to Mirchandani, but it may have taken a year or so to get to that point.
“The first year can be hard. You have to get over the hump. The three challenges of the first year are making sure your clients move with you to the new firm and you get them set up properly; making sure the compliance and legal issues are taken care of, and learning the ropes at the new firm," he says.