If there's one theme in the industry that nearly everyone seems to share, it's that the time is right, now, for the movement of advisors and their clients' assets.
Following a week where I attended two big conferences—the annual FSI conference in Phoenix for independent BD executives and the TD Ameritrade Institutional conference in San Diego—and one much smaller gathering, that of Commonwealth Financial's annual Chairman's Retreat in Boston, the theme was repeated in different ways. In separate conversations in late January and early February with the likes of Elliot Weissbluth of HighTower, Dale Brown of FSI, Tom Bradley of TD and several executives at Commonwealth, they repeated the mantra: 2011 will be a year when breakaway brokers and disaffected indie BD reps finally pull the trigger and decide to see if the grass is really greener on the other side of the fence.
That fence is perhaps less daunting now that the markets have apparently decided that we're in the midst of a true recovery, one that won't be shaken by European bank and sovereign debt troubles, by the shrill level of partisanship in Washington over deficits, health care and taxes, by the ongoing budget issues in the states and even by political turmoil throughout Egypt and the Middle East.
