The combined number of local registered representatives at Orange County’s biggest financial advisory firms dropped while the firms boosted their total OC work forces.
That picture is the opposite of the trend a year earlier, when local advisory firms cut overall headcount despite adding representatives.
A registered representative is a regulated professional who trades securities, such as stocks, bonds and options, for clients for a fee or commission.
Representatives typically work for a broker-dealer company that’s registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission and is a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
The registered representative is required to pass the Series 7 and Series 63 qualifying examinations.
This week’s Business Journal list ranks the 25 wealth management firms and advisory divisions of financial services companies based on the number of registered representatives in their OC operations.
They combined for 1,705 advisers as of this month, down by 104, or 6%, from a year earlier.
The number of overall employees, including staffers, came to 5,889, up by 99, or 2%.
The entries’ number of office locations in OC increased by 2% to 285, and the number of their companywide offices increased by 7% to 15,604.
Ten of the entries increased their numbers of registered representatives. Two had no changes year-over-year, and five cut representatives. Numbers for the remaining eight were flat based on Business Journal estimates.
• Wells Fargo & Co., the perennial No. 1, had 454 registered representatives in Orange County, down by 4% from the past year. The company has more than 4,200 local employees overall, up about 4%.
San Francisco-based Wells Fargo has 9,000 offices, including 126 here, both unchanged from a year ago.
• Merrill Lynch Wealth Management kept its place at No. 2 despite a 36% drop in the number of registered representatives in its OC offices for a total of 226. A firm representative couldn’t be reached for comment on the drop.
The 126-representative cut is the biggest on the list, which would have had a 3% increase in the number of registered representatives without it.
Merrill Lynch still had a net gain of 42 local employees, or 13%, for a total of 375. It kept its OC offices at eight while adding 14 companywide for a total of 691.
• Other firms that cut their number of registered representatives include Oppenheimer & Co., which dropped 42% to seven, leading to a seven-spot slip to No. 23.
The New York-based company cut its employment base in its sole OC office in Newport Beach by 18% to 18.
• Gainers on the list include No. 4, UBS Financial Services Inc., which reported it added 27 registered representatives to its OC offices, ending with 158, the biggest raw-number growth on the list.
UBS, which is part of Zurich, Switzerland-based UBS AG, has four offices in Orange County, flat from a year ago, and 299 overall, up by nine.
• Raymond James Financial Services Inc. moved up two spots to No. 9 with 48 registered representatives here, up by 17. The 55% increase is the biggest percentage gain on the list.
The firm added two local offices for a total of 24, while adding more than 1,000 locations companywide for a total of 2,690, second to Wells Fargo’s 9,000 and widening its lead over Merrill Lynch’s 691.
• Newport Beach-based No. 21, Pence Wealth Management, added one registered representative for a total of nine in OC. It has 17 workers here, up by three.
“We’ve added an adviser for several reasons,” said Anne Godfrey, a spokesperson for Pence, which is headed by husband-and-wife team Dryden and Laila Pence.
“One of them is that his profile is Asian, specifically Chinese, and he speaks Mandarin. We have had some interest in prospects who are recent immigrants from China and are looking to invest outside of their home country, where there’s been a lot of volatility.”
Godfrey said it’s also a way to better allocate advisers’ time and focus, ultimately to better serve clients.
“Every client is very important to us, but … there’s only so many hours in a day. You can’t just increase the client base and not re-evaluate, ‘Maybe I need to turn some of my clients to another adviser so that the client can be better served.’ …
“When you want to increase the number of reps, you want to make sure that there is enough business. It is a balancing act between the current clients we have, the prospects we are onboarding, and also how we are evolving within the firm.”
This year’s list has two newcomers.
• Newport Beach-based Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC debuted at No. 8 with 53 registered representatives in OC, unchanged from an estimated total a year earlier.
The company has 56 employees overall locally.
• Lincoln Financial Network/Sagemark Consulting landed at No. 11.
The Philadelphia-based company has one OC office in Irvine. It has 42 registered representatives, up by 8%, and 67 employees overall, up by 5%.
