The 24 biggest dealers operating in Orange County reported the number of registered financial representatives rose less than 1% to 1,745, according to the Business Journal’s annual list of financial advisers.
Only seven of the brokers reported increasing their headcount. By contrast, three had no changes, four reported declines, and 10 were estimated to be flat because of insufficient data.
Overall employment at these firms climbed 2.3% increase to 2,713.
Data on the firms and their headcount was as of May.
Increased Competition
The industry has been sluggish in recent years as investors did their own trading, used robo advisers, or relied on registered investment advisers (see separate story, page 25). While the largest broker-dealers increased their registered representatives last year by 9.4%, that compares with a 1.4% decrease in 2019.
Newport Beach was the favorite of 12 broker-dealers, followed by six in Irvine.
The number of offices rose by 20 to 176. That was mostly because No. 3 Wells Fargo Advisors added 19 more offices to its banking branches.
Wells Fargo’s advisers are no longer just trading stocks and creating financial plans, which have become commodities, according to Dave Altshuler, senior managing director of Wealth and Investment Management for the Pacific South Division of Wells Fargo Advisors.
“Now, it’s guiding people through the changes in their lives, especially as we come out of things like the pandemic and the demographics of where we are such as the amount of wealth that will transfer in the next 15 years with the baby boomers,” he told the Business Journal (see
Starting on page 23, the list ranks broker-dealers, which can include wealth managers, based on the number of registered representatives in their OC operations. A registered representative is a licensed professional who trades securities, such as stocks, bonds, and options, on behalf of clients for a fee or commission. Firms must have at least five registered representatives to make the list.
Notables
• Merrill Lynch Wealth Management, a unit of Bank of America Corp., for the third consecutive year took the top spot, with an estimated 295 registered representatives in OC this year. Merrill’s OC offices include spots in Newport Beach, Irvine and Seal Beach.
• The eight largest dealers all retained their ranking.
• The largest increase in numbers were the Irvine office of No. 11 Northwestern Mutual, up 10 to 50, the San Juan Capistrano office of No. 7 Raymond James, up 7 to 92, and Orange’s B.B. Graham & Co., up seven to 34 for No. 16 ranking.
• The biggest decline was 29% to 15 advisers at No. 22 City National Bank.
• Newport Beach’s Roth Capital Partners LLC, the largest investment bank based in Orange County, reduced its representatives by six to 60; it still kept its No. 9 ranking.
• No. 23 Wedbush Securities Inc. trimmed its representatives at its Newport Beach office from 11 to eight.
