The largest financial advisers in Orange County combined for a slight increase in the number of registered representatives here over the past 12 months, a second-straight modest annual gain.
The 21 local offices on this week’s Business Journal list posted a gain of about 1% in registered representatives. The increase put the total for the companies at 1,659 reps.
The 18 companies on last year’s list reported a 2% gain on employment here.
The prior year saw companies on the list combine to cut about 11% of registered brokers.
The list includes brokers at investment banks, financial service companies and money management divisions of banks. It ranks companies by the number of registered representatives who hold licenses to sell stocks and other investments.
Ten of the companies added registered representatives here, five saw declines, and one was unchanged. The counts of registered representatives for five are Business Journal estimates.
Top Unchanged
The top four companies kept their spots from a year earlier.
San Francisco-based Wells Fargo & Co. remained No. 1. It added two registered representatives, reaching 459.
New York-based Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC held its No. 2 spot from a year earlier despite cutting 10% of its local brokers. It now has 271 here.
Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America Merrill Lynch stayed in the No. 3 position, adding 15 OC-registered brokers for a total of 266 people.
Morgan Stanley’s declines and BofA’s growth closed the gap between the two firms to five registered brokers. Morgan Stanley led by 51 a year earlier.
Other companies that added representatives to their OC offices include No. 5 Anaheim-based Centaurus Financial Inc., and No. 9 St. Petersburg, Fla.-based Raymond James Financial Services Inc., which has 23 offices in OC.
Centaurus added 16 registered representatives over the 12 months, which moved the company up one spot on the list.
The additions came after the company lost 16 registered brokers for the steepest decline among the companies on last year’s list.
Raymond James also added nine registered representatives here as it opened four more offices here.
Overall OC employment for the companies on the list, counting administrative workers and others at bank branches and other offices, increased 27% to a total of 13,467.
Last year saw a 7.7% decline.
Wells and BofA combined for nearly all of the overall employment gain. Without the two firms, the growth came to 2%, an addition of 25 positions for a total of 1,249.
Wells added more than 1,300 employees in OC over the past 12 months.
BofA had the biggest increase in overall employment here, adding 1,500 employees for a total of 6,500. It remained the largest employer among the local financial advisory companies.
The wealth management division of BofA recently announced an internal reorganization which consolidated its 16 regional groups down to 11. The move brought Chandler Root to replace Joseph Holsinger as director of the southwest region, which includes markets in Southern California, the Pacific Islands and Arizona, and manages about $83 billion assets.
Root had been regional director of BofA’s Los Angeles/Mountain region.
The list of financial advisers shows a mix of companies adding and closing offices in the OC area.
While the 21 companies combined for a 6% decline in the number of companywide offi-ces—a drop of 1,366—their overall OC presence increased. There was a net increase of 12 offices in the past 12 months, putting the total here at 361.
No. 14 Irvine-based Financial Network Investment Corp. contributed to the overall growth here by adding 10 offices in OC.
Wells consolidated offices here, cutting 19 offices for a total of 112.
Newcomers
Three newcomers were added to the list this year.
Irvine-based Burnham Gibson Financial Group Inc. debuted at No. 18 with 10 OC-registered representatives, up from six a year ago.
New York-based E*Trade Financial Corp., which has an OC branch in Costa Mesa, came in at No. 20.
Pence Wealth Management based in Newport Beach was No. 21.
