Wire houses have lost head count and asset share even as average assets under management per advisor in the channel have risen, according to a report released Friday by the Boston research firm Cerulli Associates.
"Wire house firms lost 8% asset market share during the past three years and we forecast them to experience a decline of 6,800 advisors during the next five years," Scott Smith, head of Cerulli's intermediary practice, said in a press release. "In turn, we expect independent advisors to increase their head count share by more than 3% during that time frame, as [independent broker-dealer] and [registered investment advisor] channels assume the wire house losses."
The one silver lining for wire houses is that their advisor average AUM increased to $94 million in 2010 from $84 million, Cerulli said. It said that growth showed "initial success at increasing profitability as these firms trim lower-end advisors."
