The number of registered representatives at the largest financial advisory firms in Orange County declined by 4% over the past year, reversing a three-year streak of modest gains.
This week’s Business Journal list ranks 20 wealth management firms and advisory divisions of financial services companies by the number of registered advisers in their OC offices.
Companies on the list range from independent firms with a handful of offices to large retail brokerages that operate from locations throughout the U.S.
Six of the firms have headquarters in OC; the rest have significant operations here.
The year-over-year rankings stayed relatively steady, except for a few shuffles resulting from one-spot moves.
The top advisory firms in OC employed 1,674 advisers, down about 4% from the year-earlier total of 1,743.
The number of registered representatives at six firms declined, and eight firms’ pools increased. Three stayed level, and the Business Journal estimated numbers for three.
The list also includes the number of each firm’s overall employee base in OC, as well as its office count here and companywide, though those measures don’t affect the rankings.
• Wells Fargo & Co. maintained its No. 1 seat despite a 9% decline in the number of registered advisers, leaving a total of 441 in OC. Meanwhile, the San Francisco-based bank increased its number of OC employees overall by 203 for a total of 4,372. Wells Fargo accounts for 73% of the total number of employees on the list.
The company has 121 offices in OC—up by one—out of a firmwide total of 9,000.
“We are expecting to open a few stores in OC next year, which will allow for our continued growth,” said Wells Fargo spokesperson Lisa Woolery.
• Merrill Lynch Wealth Management moved up one spot to No. 2, with 352 registered representatives in OC. That’s down about 5% from a year earlier. The decline was part of an overall downsizing by Charlotte, N.C.-based Merrill Lynch, which cut its OC employee base by 9%, leaving 376.
• Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC was No. 3, with 220 registered advisers here after it hired four over the past year. The New York-based firm has 347 employees here overall across nine offices, including in Brea and Irvine, after closing one during the past year. Companywide, Morgan Stanley has 676 offices, down from 722 as of last September.
• Anaheim-based Centaurus Financial Inc., the largest OC-based firm on the list, ranked No. 5 with 93 registered representatives here, down 11% from a year earlier.
Its advisers are independent contractors, according to Centaurus, which employs 65 people in OC after hiring three over the past year.
• No. 6, Newport Beach-based Roth Capital Partners LLC, had the largest percentage decline when its number of registered representatives decreased by about 31% for a total of 65. It also decreased its overall employee base to 101, down 15%. Roth Capital didn’t respond to requests for comment.
• Corona del Mar-based Mischler Financial Group Inc. got a push to the No. 10 spot after adding 10 registered representatives during the past year for a total of 44. That’s the biggest gain on the list in terms of the number of new hires.
• Burnham Gibson Financial Group Inc., ranked 17, stayed “pretty static,” said Darin Gibson, president and owner.
The company—which has an office in Irvine and another in San Diego—has 11 registered advisers here, unchanged from last September, and 25 employees total, up by one.
The firm plans to hire an additional administrative staffer in the fourth quarter, according to Gibson.
“We’ve had great growth over the past few years, and we’ve been focused on digesting that growth and building out more operational efficiencies,” Gibson said.
“We are recruiting, and we’ve interviewed a lot of financial professionals in the marketplace. But we’ve been extremely selective in the hiring process.”
He said part of the stall in the growth of the wealth management sector here could be that “the industry as a whole is an older population.”
“The majority of financial advisers in the marketplace today are above the age of 50,” Gibson said. “I think you’re seeing continued retirement of these individuals, and we haven’t had new growth of young professionals to take over.”
• No. 19 Pence Wealth Management grew its base of registered advisers to six, double last September’s number. Seven others work at the Newport Beach headquarters.
President Laila Pence attributed the boost to increasing client demand.
“We have a huge demand from existing clients but also through new clients,” she said.
“We get many people calling us, coming through our website and also [responding to] our regular marketing. So we needed to hire a lot more advisers.”
Chief Investment Officer Dryden Pence, Laila’s husband, said the firm has changed its business model to bring on more salary-based advisers as opposed to fee-based representatives.
“Marketing is a burden, and we’re relieving them of that so they can really focus on that human interaction with their clients.”
