Howard Stock

Eighteen months ago, Heather Oliver turned her back on Morgan Stanley to become a Primevest representative at the $6 billion-asset BankAtlantic in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Despite the recession, smaller clients and less-sophisticated products, her business is thriving.

For Paul Stetter, an adviser at Fulton Financial Corp. in Lancaster, Pa., moving to a fee-based advisory business was a no-brainer. The 38-year-old adviser "didn't want to wind up at 55 working the same way I've been working for the past four years," starting from zero each month.

Though John Murphy, a financial network rep at Union National Community Bank in Lancaster County, Pa., had been raised on modern portfolio theory and believes in the principles of asset allocation, that strategy clearly wasn't going to weather this storm.

Retirees are some of the biggest financial advice customers, coming to wealth managers for help with reverse mortgages, annuities — and even vacations.