The financial crisis presented an opportunity for independent advisory firms to step up their recruitment of brokers from the old wirehouses. The thought was that the public no longer trusted the big names on Wall Street and would be more likely to go the independent route. Lots of incentives were offered. This coincided with some staff paring at many big firms, and the seismic deal by Bank of America to buy the Thundering Herd.

But according to Reuters, it looks like no mass defections are materializing. By one estimate, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Smith Barney had a total of 40,000 advisers at the beginning of 2008. That has since changed very little. But the big firms were prodded to revamp incentives to keep their big producers.  

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