The largest independent brokerages in wealth management are reaping gains from their scale advantage, but some of their midsize rivals are thriving as well.
In the rankings below of the fastest growing firms in the channel, giant companies LPL Financial, Cetera Financial Group, Northwestern Mutual, Commonwealth Financial Network, MassMutual's MML Investors Services, Raymond James Financial Services and Cambridge Investment Research occupy seven of the 10 spots. However, smaller competitor LaSalle St. Securities also made the list, as did Level Four Financial and Arkadios Capital — two
That dynamic reflects how midsize independent brokerage firms
"They've already thought of that so many years in advance and they have a way to get their capital out of it without having to sell it," Papike said in an interview.
Still, many of the firms are listening to offers "at a certain multiple that they feel is so tempting that they can't refuse it" and shifting away from the idea that they can pass the company "on to the next generation," she added. "Private equity just pumps so much capital into our industry that it's really affected the number of sales we've seen."
Private equity-backed firms such as Cetera are boosting their size, but publicly traded
Scroll down the slideshow for the ranking of the fastest growing independent brokerages in wealth management. And find other features from this year's edition of
Deep dive into independent wealth manager data The 15 largest independent brokerages in wealth management Top 10 firms with the fastest growing payouts The 12 firms with the largest percentage of women advisors IBD Elite 2024: The myth of big versus small
Note: The companies are ranked below by the percentage increase in their annual revenue between 2023 and the prior year, as reported by the companies themselves. FP relies on each firm to state their annual metrics accurately.