Orange County’s financial advisory firms combined to deepen the pool of registered advisers here while reducing the size of their overall employment bases.
This week’s Business Journal list ranks 23 wealth management firms and advisory arms of financial services companies based on the number of registered advisers in their OC offices.
The companies accounted for 1,729 registered representatives as of September, a 3.4% year-over-year increase. The gains compared with a 4% decrease the year before that broke a string of increases the prior three years.
The list also features the number of overall employees at each firm, including staffers, as well as the number of office locations in the county, although those don’t factor into the rankings.
The entries combined for 5,694 employees, down about 5% from the past year.
They range from independent businesses with a couple of offices to large retail brokerages that have locations throughout the U.S.
Nine entries increased their number of registered representatives; seven reported decreases; and two said they made no changes. The Business Journal made estimates for five firms, keeping their numbers the same as a year earlier.
The steady growth in the number of advisers here could be linked to “a population that’s getting older and living longer,” said Andy Policano, director of the Center for Investment and Wealth Management at the University of California-Irvine’s Paul Merage School of Business.
“As we move toward retirement, everyone is concerned about outliving cash,” he said. “Also, there’s going to be tremendous amount of wealth transfers over the next 10 to 20 years. If you’re in the generation in your family that’s accumulated wealth, and you’d like to transfer to the next generation, that’s very complex today. … They look to professionals to help with that.”
• The advisory unit of Wells Fargo & Co. remained at the top with 472 registered representatives in Orange County, up by 31, or 7%, from a year ago.
It cut its overall workforce here by about 300 jobs to 4,067 while opening five offices here for a total of 126, all part of the companywide network of 9,000 offices.
• No. 4, UBS Financial Services Inc., increased its local advisory workforce by 9% for a total of 143 representatives. The subsidiary of Zurich, Switzerland-based financial services company UBS AG increased its overall OC workforce by 12, or 9%, to 254 employees. It has four offices in Orange County, unchanged from a year earlier, and 299 offices companywide, down from 350.
• Fidelity Investments moved up one spot to No. 7, with 60 advisers here, a 13% increase year-over-year. It has 80 employees overall in Orange County, up by one. Fidelity has five offices here out of a total of 183.
• The Newport Beach office of RBC Wealth Management moved up two spots to No. 13 with an addition of four advisers to 24. The company has 225 offices overall.
• No. 20, Newport Beach-based Pence Wealth Management, had eight advisers, up from six a year earlier. The firm had 14 employees overall. It has two other offices in California and one in Michigan.
Several firms decreased their adviser workforces, including Wedbush Securities, which had 10 representatives here last month, down by four from a year earlier. The decline pushed the firm down one spot to No. 17.
Wedbush has 16 employees here overall in its sole OC office in Newport Beach, down by three. The firm is part of Los Angeles-based Wedbush Inc. and has 40 locations overall, unchanged year-over-year.
• No. 19, Burnham Gibson Financial Group Inc., had nine registered representatives, down by two from a year earlier. The firm had 24 employees overall, down by one.
The decline was part of “a normal movement,” according to President Darin Gibson.
“We’re always looking for good people, and there are always good spots to fill.”
Demand for Burnham Gibson’s services “has been strong in pension consulting and wealth management,” he said.
“I think people have always needed advice and guidance. Now is no different, especially coming out of the past 15 years where we’ve had two large bear markets. People are seeking advisers, recognizing wealth management is critical. Then there are changes in the tax code; on the regulatory front, it’s become much more complex to navigate.”
Gibson also pointed to what seems to be “a common challenge” for the industry.
“There isn’t as many new young people coming into the business,” he said. “We have an aging adviser population. It’s hard to find skilled, competent, young people.”
This week’s list had two newcomers:
• Oppenheimer & Co. came in at No. 16, with 12 registered representatives in its sole Orange County office in Newport Beach. It has 22 employees here, unchanged from a year ago. The firm, part of New York-based Oppenheimer Holdings Inc., has 86 locations in the U.S., eight of them recently established.
• Orange-based B.B. Graham & Co. made the list at No. 20 with eight registered representatives here, up by two. The firm has two locations in OC that house 10 employees overall. It added four offices in the past year for a total of 27 nationwide.
