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General Broker-Dealers at Center of Creeping Channel Convergence

The general broker-dealer channel accounts for 55 percent of AUM of the total broker-dealer marketplace with cash flow essentially flat.

General B/Ds at Center of Creeping Channel Convergence

The IBD/Regional channel, as tracked by Broadridge, comprise 125,00+ FAs across a diverse set of independent and regional brokerages offering a range of affiliation options. The IBD/Regional channel sits between the powerful wirehouses and entrepreneurial RIAs, although blurring payout and support models are making classification more difficult and, in many ways, less relevant. In response, asset managers are repurposing field forces and placing a greater emphasis on business intelligence and the economics of using data analytics to find and retain the right advisors.

According to our proprietary database, there are more than 1,000 The IBD/Regional firms. Although fragmented, there exists a core group of 30 broker-dealers that account for 70 percent of FAs and serve as an efficient delivery network for asset managers, the largest of which are Edward Jones (16,100), LPL Financial (13,500) and Ameriprise (8,600). 

The IBD/Regional channel currently accounts for 55 percent of the $4.4 trillion AUM managed in the retail broker-dealer marketplace, a share that has held steady since 2015. Cash flow has been similarly flat over the same period, though ahead of net outflows experienced by wirehouses.