Diamond: Merrill, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo, UBS net lose 517 experienced advisors in first half

Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo and UBS lost a net 517 experienced advisors in the first six months of 2026, according to Diamond Consultants. The report, "Financial advisor transition report: wirehouse edition," counts 1,449 experienced advisors lost and 932 recruited over the half. Annualized, that pace would produce a net loss of 1,034 advisors, more than three times the 302 the wirehouses shed in all of 2025, the report says.

1,449 experienced advisors left the four firms in six months, and the report attributes the outflow to "other pockets of the industry," with regional, boutique and independent firms all gaining market share. For RIA principals, aggregators and the recruiters who serve them, that gross number, rather than the net 517, is the one that sizes the supply pool. Diamond CEO Louis Diamond told InvestmentNews that 200 different firms recruited or hired a team from one of the four wirehouses so far this year, which suggests the pool is being contested by a wide field of buyers.

Diamond's explanations are not about compensation grids. "The proliferation of choice is a big part of this," he said of the breadth of firms hiring wirehouse teams. Advisors "have more power and leverage than ever," he added, and "they're seeing and thinking about the valuations of firms out there." Market cycles play a role too: "Every few years, firms have their moment, and not in a good way," Diamond said, which causes some advisors to look elsewhere.

The report also notes that the average productivity, size, sophistication and capacity of a wirehouse advisor "is larger than ever," and that the four firms still control a large share of total industry assets, scale the report calls a potential "competitive moat" as the AI arms race heats up. Wirehouse executives, speaking privately to InvestmentNews, are skeptical about whether such reports' numbers are accurate, though some concede competition for their advisors is as fierce as ever.