Merrill and UBS drive a six-month wirehouse advisor loss bigger than all of 2025
The four wirehouses lost 517 advisors net in the first half of 2026, more than in all of 2025, Diamond Consultants reported. The cost shows up more in assets than in heads, with 41 departing teams each managing $500 million or more.
The Investor · Invest desk
What happened
- Diamond Consultants counted 1,449 experienced advisors leaving Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, UBS and Wells Fargo in the half, against 932 who joined them.
- Twelve of those 41 large teams moved to another wirehouse.
- Of all advisors leaving the four firms, 46% chose an independent model and 24% went to another wirehouse, about half the historical lateral rate.
Why it matters
- What it costs cost At least $18.5 billion in team assets left the wirehouse model outright, money none of the four firms can win back by hiring from the other three.
- What it limits constraint A wirehouse that loses advisors has fewer rival-firm leavers to recruit in their place, because about three in four departures from the four firms go somewhere other than a wirehouse.
- Who has to decide decision Merrill, UBS and Morgan Stanley have to decide whether to offer an employee-to-independent route inside the firm, since their advisors who want independence must now resign to get it.
Next story · Invest · 2d ago
Morgan Stanley's Pick calls AI financing existential as Goldman's Solomon admits demand is unknownConfirmed2 publishers
Add the firm figures and Merrill Lynch and UBS are down 586 advisors between them. That is more than the channel's entire net loss, because Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo added 69 [21][19].
Merrill's 404 is the number Diamond's own report calls misleading. More than 100 of those leavers went to J.P. Morgan, which the report takes as a sign they were Bank of America bank-side advisors outside the population it means to measure [12]. Take them out and Merrill's net loss is at most 304, and the four firms' at most 417 [22][28]. Whether the half still beats all of 2025 on that basis depends on a 2025 net figure the article does not give [3]. "Even if you strip those out, we're talking about a big number of advisors leaving Merrill," said Jason Diamond, president of Diamond Consultants [13][9]. He described Merrill under Bank of America as a "bureaucratic bankified place where there's pressures to cross sell" [8].
Diamond reports team assets by size band, so the defensible figure is a floor, or rather two floors. Twenty-one teams at $500 million or more plus 20 at $1 billion or more managed at least $30.5 billion [23]. Twelve of the 41 went to another wirehouse [10]. Even if all twelve were billion-dollar teams, at least eight billion-dollar teams and 21 smaller ones left the wirehouse model, for a floor of $18.5 billion that went outside the four firms [24][25].
Large teams were slightly more likely than the average leaver to stay inside the channel, 29% against 24% [26]. Diamond said such teams "have the most to lose by leaving because their business is growing," and that they now weigh it as "Yes, we have a lot to lose, but we also have so much to gain" [16].
The two gainers grew by different routes. Morgan Stanley, the steadiest of the four in Diamond's view, feeds its advisors leads from its workplace business [17]. Wells moved another 135 advisors between its own channels in the half, almost three times its net recruiting gain, and the report leaves them out of its recruiting data [14][27]. "Wells is currently the only wirehouse that gives advisors the ability to move from an employee model to an independent affiliation without leaving the broader firm," the report states [15].
Three readings fit these numbers. One puts the loss on Merrill and UBS alone, with UBS hit hardest because its base is the smallest and, in Diamond's account, its platform is outdated [7]. Another has the channel leaking to independence [6], with the two gainers splitting a smaller lateral pool. A third says Merrill's bank-side moves inflate the trend. I think the second is right. Stripping out the J.P. Morgan moves, which went neither independent nor to a wirehouse, would if anything raise the independent share [12][6]. Against that, Morgan Stanley and Wells still added people [11], and Diamond is more optimistic about Merrill for next year [18]. The view is wrong if the independent share falls back as Merrill's turnover settles. That would make this half one firm's event.
What to watch
- A firm-by-firm split of the 41 large teams, to show whether billion-dollar departures also hit Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo.
- Any signal from UBS on its commitment to U.S. wealth management, the question Diamond raised alongside its outdated platform.
Information, not investment advice. This story is general information about companies and markets, drawn from cited reporting. It is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any security; check the cited sources before acting.
Clarity's read
What the record supports and how the coverage leans. The claims behind it follow.
Reality
- Evidence55
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+15
- Incentives60
- Confidence55
Claim ledger
Ranked by verification strength, evidence, and original report placement.
- [1]
1,449 experienced advisors left the four wirehouses, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, UBS and Wells Fargo, in the first half of 2026, according to Diamond Consultants' Advisor Transition Report.
- [2]
The four wirehouses gained 932 advisors in the first half of 2026, resulting in a net loss of 517 advisors.
- [3]
"Put another way, the wirehouses lost more advisors on a net basis in the first half of 2026 than they did during all of 2025."
- [4]
Some 41 teams managing $500 million or more in assets left a wirehouse in the first half of 2026.
- [5]
Of the 41 teams managing $500 million or more that left a wirehouse, 20 had $1 billion or more.
- [6]
46% of advisors leaving the four wirehouses chose an independent model versus 24% who moved laterally to another wirehouse, down substantially from 2025 and roughly half the historical wirehouse capture rate.
- [7]
UBS was the clear loser for the period because, though it did not lose the most advisors, it has the smallest base of the wirehouses; Diamond attributes it to culture, ease of doing business and an outdated platform, and there are questions about UBS's commitment to U.S. wealth management.
- [8]
"It's now this bureaucratic bankified place where there's pressures to cross sell, and 'they change our payouts' and things like that."
- [9]
Jason Diamond is president of Diamond Consultants.
- [10]
Twelve of the 41 teams managing $500 million or more moved to another wirehouse.
- [11]
Merrill Lynch and UBS had net headcount losses of 404 and 182 in the first six months of 2026, while Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley had net gains of 46 and 23 advisors.
- [12]
The report states Merrill's number is misleading because over 100 of its advisors went to J.P. Morgan, an indication that they are bank advisors from the Bank of America side and not the ones the report is trying to capture.
- [13]
"Even if you strip those out, we're talking about a big number of advisors leaving Merrill,"
- [14]
The report excludes internal affiliation changes from its recruiting data, but counted another 135 advisors moving between Wells Fargo channels in the first half.
- [15]
"Wells is currently the only wirehouse that gives advisors the ability to move from an employee model to an independent affiliation without leaving the broader firm."
- [16]
"...they have the most to lose by leaving because their business is growing. ... But the fact that so many of them are leaving tells us that they've kind of flipped that equation on its head, and they look at it as, 'Yes, we have a lot to lose, but we also have so much to gain.'"
- [17]
Diamond said Morgan Stanley has been the steadiest performer in the group for several years, and its advisors have been growing fast as the firm feeds them leads from its workplace business.
- [18]
Diamond is more optimistic for Merrill for next year.
- [19]
Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo gained a combined 69 advisors net; 586 minus 69 equals the 517 headline net loss, which also equals 1,449 leavers minus 932 recruits.
- [20]
About 76% of advisors leaving the four wirehouses went somewhere other than another wirehouse.
- [21]
Merrill Lynch and UBS had a combined net loss of 586 advisors in the first half of 2026.
- [22]
Excluding the more than 100 Merrill advisors who went to J.P. Morgan, Merrill's net loss is at most 304.
- [23]
The 41 departing teams managed at least $30.5 billion: 21 teams at $500 million or more and 20 at $1 billion or more.
- [24]
29 of the 41 large teams left the wirehouse model rather than moving to another wirehouse.
- [25]
At least eight billion-dollar teams left the wirehouse model, and teams leaving the model managed at least $18.5 billion.
- [26]
About 29% of the large departing teams moved to another wirehouse, against 24% of all leavers.
- [27]
Wells Fargo's 135 internal channel moves were almost three times its net recruiting gain of 46.
- [28]
Excluding the more than 100 Merrill moves to J.P. Morgan, the four wirehouses' net loss is at most 417.
Sources
2 independent publishers whose own reporting we read for this story.
- americanbanker.comWirehouse departures are up. How firms can appeal to those advisors
1 article · October 8, 2026
- wealthmanagement.comWirehouses Lost 517 Advisors in First Half of 2026
1 article · October 8, 2026
Topics and entities
Topics
- Independent wealth management channel
- Advisor Recruiting and Movement
Entities
- Diamond Consultants
- J.P. Morgan
- Morgan Stanley
- Bank of America
- UBS
- Cerulli Associates
- Wells Fargo