Across all advisor channels, national and regional broker-dealers saw asset growth at thefastest rate in the past year, with the channel seeing asset growthat a 9.1 percent year-over-year growth rate.

That’s 1.9 percent faster than the industry’s 7.2 percentoverall growth.

According to Cerulli Associates, some of that growth was the resultof “European banks exiting the U.S. private wealth business, whichinfused new assets into the channel.”

So says Kenton Shirk, director of Cerulli's intermediarypractice, who adds in the report, “But recruiting advantages—scale,brand, and culture—are driving organic growth.”

The 10 largest BD networks, the report says, control 55.2percent of assets and 32.7 percent of advisor headcount, and BDnetworks with $100 billion or more in assets under management grewassets 8.9 percent annually during the past 10 years.

Shirk says in the report, “Large national BDs have used thewirehouse recruiting scaleback as an opportunity to aggressivelycourt new advisors.”

He adds, “The wirehouses reduced bonuses and have become moreselective in their ideal advisor profile. Historically, thenational/regional firms have paid less than the wirehouses, butthat gap has shrunk, opening the door for national/regional firmsto invest more aggressively in recruiting. Recruiters expectnational/regional firms to continue offering solid deals.”

Home office influence on advisors’ investment selection,according to 73 percent of wholesalers, is a moderate or majorchallenge.

In addition, Cerulli says that a BD’s culture is a major factorin spurring advisor movement.

Says Shirk in the report, “Advisors who recently switched firmsand left a branch network firm rank concerns about the quality oftheir BD’s culture as the leading factor, with 75 percent ratingculture as a moderate or major factor in their decision to move.Large national and regional firms that maintain an advisororientation are best positioned to promote large-firm resourceswith a small-firm culture, an attractive message for advisorsseeking to depart bureaucratic and impersonal organizations.”

Technology is also rising in importance as a consideration inadvisors’ search for new firms. And it’s still harder for smallerfirms to compete with larger ones on a platform that supportsadvisor productivity and client experience.