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The New Arms Race For Advisors
LPL’ s Commonwealth acquisition jolted the industry, triggering unprecedented movement and richer offers.
By Jacqueline Sergeant
I
F THERE WAS EVER A TIME WHEN ADVISORS FELT FIRMLY IN control of their destiny, it is now. The battle among brokerdealers to win reps over is more intense than ever, and these advisors are taking their time and carefully weighing their options, recruiters and industry insiders say.
“ It’ s definitely a recruiting war right now,” says Louis Diamond, CEO of Diamond Consultants, a search firm for advisors in Morristown, N. J.“ I probably sound like a broken record because every year I say it’ s the most competitive, but that’ s absolutely the case right now.”
Diamond’ s sentiment is borne out in recent earnings reports from some of the biggest broker-dealers, which highlighted the record hiring of advisors.
LPL Financial, the nation’ s largest independent broker-dealer, boasted of its“ strongest quarter of recruiting in nearly two years,” with a growth of 35 % from a year ago to $ 25 billion in recruited assets. The San Diego-based firm says there is more to come as it looks to integrating more Commonwealth advisors in the fourth quarter. In a blockbuster deal, LPL bought the Waltham, Mass.- based independent broker-dealer last year for $ 2.7 billion in cash. Before that transaction took place, LPL had been dominating the recruiting wars in 2023 and 2024.
St. Petersburg, Fla.-based Raymond James Financial said that in the first nine months of the year it recruited advisors producing $ 393 million of revenue and managing more than $ 56 billion in assets at their previous firms. And that puts them“ on a clear path” to finish the year at record results.
San Diego-based Cetera also reported robust recruiting. The firm’ s recruited assets are up roughly 40 % year-over-year through May 2026, and its year-to-date annualized retention rate stands at 98.3 %.
Industry insiders say the recent surge in advisor recruitment and movement has been jolted by LPL’ s acquisition of Commonwealth, which is considered the largest in the independent broker-dealer space.
SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2026 | FINANCIAL ADVISOR MAGAZINE | 25