The changes to the ranks of the largest independent brokerages in wealth management in the past year represent only slight, yet notable, shifts at the top of the channel.
The slideshow below displays the 15 biggest independent brokerages based on their annual revenue, which the companies provided to Financial Planning as part of the 2024 IBD Elite study. Three newcomers to the list in the Nos. 15-13 slots — Park Avenue Securities, Principal Securities and Lincoln Investment Planning — moved into those positions after mega-deals by a couple of the giants of the channel, Osaic and Cetera Financial Group, absorbed several of last year’s placeholders.
The perennial No. 1 firm, LPL Financial, is currently in the process of acquiring another company that made this year’s list, Atria Wealth Solutions.
Major independent brokerages are certainly pressing their advantages in the channel, as reflected in the makeup of this list and the fact that the number of FINRA-registered firms shrank by 6% over the past five years. However, companies like Austin, Texas-based Kestra Financial that have ample capital resources, productive financial advisors and a focus on the advisory side of the business rather than commissions are still competing — and winning sometimes — by staying more nimble in some ways than the biggest firms at the top of the rankings.
“We’re kind of like ‘Cheers’ where everybody knows your name, and that is part of the fabric of our firm,” Kestra President Stephen Langlois said in an interview, referring to the concierge support teams that work with the firm’s 1,700 advisors. “When they call in, the first question is not, ‘What’s your rep ID?’”
Conversely, the largest players’ branches can curate this more personalized experience through their ability to act as the go-between on advisors’ behalf to the giants. Despite the fact that many “smaller firms are disappearing,” they “know who you are, they know what your business is about and they know what you’re trying to accomplish,” said Rita Robbins of New York-based Affiliated Advisors. Her firm can present that level of service while using the scale of its brokerage, giant No. 3 firm Osaic, she said in an interview.
“It’s really challenging when you’re at a big firm to be able to take advantages of the resources that they offer,” Robbins said. “We try to provide not only the resources that are available at Osaic. but our own resources.”
Scroll down the slideshow to see the rankings of the 15 largest independent brokerages in wealth management by their annual revenue. Or read the 2024 IBD Elite cover story, “The myth of big versus small.” Plus, follow these links to see all of the data in printable PDF format, as part of an interactive table and the top 15 firms last year.
Notes: The companies are ranked below by their 2023 revenue, as reported by the firms themselves. FP relies on each firm to state their annual metrics accurately and rounds each figure. The industry term “producing registered representative” refers to each firm’s most accurate count of financial advisors using the firm as their brokerage or RIA. “Other revenue” means any other business besides sales commissions and advisory fees. Each metric is as of year-end 2023. “N/A” stands for “not available.”
