RJ and Makay

Job hopping by financial advisors (FAs) should rebound in 2011 following a slow 2010, says LPL Investment Holdings, a network of independent brokerages. The company, which has more than 12,000 independent FAs, sells clearing and many other support services. It ranks fifth in terms of revenue.

Historically, 12% of brokers have changed jobs each year, points out LPL Chief Executive Mark Casady. "If you average out '09 and what we reported through the third quarter, those two years averaged out to 12%," Casady says. "What you saw was merely an acceleration of the 2010 class into '09. My view is that if it's been 12% a year for a long time, it will continue to be 12% going forward."

>> Read More RJ & Makay Blog Posts

Financial Advisor recruiting has seen a boom over the last two years. Will the boom continue or has Financial Advisor (FA) recruiting stabilized?

In the 15 month period from August 2008 to Nov 2009 there were 11,875 wirehouse reps and 1687 regional firm reps who switched firms. Wirehouse reps are Financial Advisors from either Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, UBS, Merrill Lynch/BofA and Wachovia/Wells Fargo.

With Bank of America (BAC) buying Merrill Lynch (MER) and Wells Fargo (WFC) buying Wachovia/AG Edwards (WB) there are over 30,000 financial advisors in flux. When you include over 20,000 advisors from powerhouses like Morgan Stanley (MS) and UBS (UBS) whose fate is uncertain of late (both have talked with other suitors this year about merging or selling) the advisor count nearly doubles.