Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated lost 952 advisors net in twelve months, the most of any registered adviser
Among 829 advisers with 25 or more registered advisors, the largest net losses of registered advisors between 2025-09-18 and 2026-09-18: Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated -952 (588 in, 1,540 out, 25,477 registered); Commonwealth Financial Network -561 (92 in, 653 out, 2,942 registered); Equitable Advisors, Llc -461 (98 in, 559 out, 4,624 registered); Edward Jones -403 (332 in, 735 out, 24,084 registered); Strategic Advisers Llc -396 (320 in, 716 out, 16,954 registered); Ubs Financial Services Inc. -335 (293 in, 628 out, 9,349 registered). 30,000 firm-to-firm moves in the year across 6,136 firms.
A firm losing registered advisors net is where teams are leaving; each departure is a person whose registration ended and began elsewhere, so the number is a floor on attrition (retirements and exits from the industry are not on IAPD).