Wedbush's Chicago hire is a market builder, not a book

Wedbush has spent September in the team-liftout business. The announcement it put out on Sept. 24 is a single name: Jim McDermott joins the firm's wealth management division as Managing Director, Investments in Chicago, arriving from Osaic Wealth after earlier stops at Wells Fargo Advisors, Oppenheimer & Co., Morgan Stanley and Prudential Financial, with more than 30 years in the business behind him.

The distinction matters at a firm that has been buying books: our Sept. 10 story covered a $500 million UBS team landing in Greensboro, and another Wedbush team move, four advisors, four days later, appears in PWD's tracking. Those hires came with assets that could be counted at signing, and the Greensboro release led with a number; this one leads with a title, naming no book, no production and no assets, while Wedbush's own framing is about presence, with the addition described as strengthening its reach across the Midwest.

On its own telling, Wedbush is buying a market. Chris Mone, the firm's head of wealth management, ties the hire to Chicago and the region, and market area manager Jon Underkofler calls Chicago one of the most important wealth management markets in the country. McDermott's explanation for the move is the more revealing document: he cites Wedbush's research in tech and healthcare and describes a quality, niche investment bank that leaves advisors free to stay with clients. Wedbush, founded in 1955 and headquartered in Pasadena, houses its wealth division under the same roof as that bank, which puts the research franchise and the product shelf at the center of the pitch.

The move cuts gently against the independence story this publication has been tracking: as we have argued, the talent war has migrated into block trades, employee-channel book trading and private-bank leadership raids; a 30-year veteran leaving an independent platform for a research-led investment bank is a quieter trade, and the title suggests Wedbush is buying a Chicago builder rather than a Chicago book. The harder hire to measure, at a boutique with a research franchise to sell, is the one that can be repeated.

Osaic can absorb the loss without noticing: the platform carries 850,797 accounts, $234.9 billion in registered assets and 8,979 employees; one managing director off that base is a rounding error at the origin and a Chicago foothold at the destination. The September pattern is how Wedbush has been building, and the Greensboro team was announced six days before this one, giving the firm a Midwest name to sit alongside a Southeast book.

The Greensboro release led with $500 million; this one led with a title, and the Midwest build is being sold on hiring that has not happened yet. If Chicago produces the team the title implies, the number arrives in the next announcement out of that office.