Osaic president says recruiting turned 'very, very fierce'

Osaic president Shannon Reid said recruiting competition has become "very, very fierce" since LPL Financial closed its Commonwealth Financial acquisition in August 2025, ThinkAdvisor reported. She also cited private-equity capital arriving over several years as a second source of pressure.

Advisors weighing a move now have more suitors, and firms that risk losing teams are defending against more of them, according to Reid. She did not share offer terms or counts of recruiting bids.

Private Wealth Daily's Moves Wire lists the latest Osaic move on Oct. 23: Mary Steele and John Boyle of Freehold Wealth Management's three-person team, with $576 million in client assets, moved from Stifel Independent Advisors to Osaic. It also lists one Commonwealth move in the past 12 months, to Osaic: Brandon Masbruch and Matt Cuplin of Midwest Financial Group, a five-person team with $450 million in client assets, left Commonwealth in a move dated Sept. 3.

Reid put Osaic's size at about $740 billion in assets, with advisors who file Form 1099 as small businesses holding roughly 80% to 85% of that, split evenly between enterprise/OSJ affiliations and Osaic Advisor Direct. That works out to roughly $300 billion in each channel. Osaic has more than 10,000 financial professionals. Bank and credit union advisors hold another 7% to 8%, and the remainder sits with Osaic advisors who file Form W-2, including hybrid, fee-based and fee-only advisors who mostly serve ultra-high-net-worth clients.

On acquisitions, Reid said "large-scale M&A is not really in our plan." As Private Wealth Daily previously reported, a $2.3 billion New Jersey firm led by James Costabile moved from LPL to Osaic and listed recruiting and acquisition support among its reasons.