Employee Firms Win Big in Billion-Dollar Team Moves
Over the last three months, the largest advisor teams have moved to a number of channels in the wealth management space, but employee firms, excluding the four wirehouses, have been the biggest beneficiaries of that movement, according to an analysis by Winthrop & Co., a transition consultancy.
From July 23 to Oct. 22, 2026, a total of 38 $1 billion-plus teams and advisors changed firms, representing at least $78 billion in reported assets.
Some 15 of those moves and at least $33.2 billion in assets were captured by employee firms, including Raymond James & Associates, Cresset, Janney, NewEdge Wealth, &Partners, Stifel and RBC Wealth Management.
That was followed by the wirehouse channel, which captured six of those large teams with at least $19.5 billion in client assets, according to Winthrop.
Winthrop compiled the analysis from publicly reported advisor and team moves in wealth management trade publications or announced by the firm the team joined.
Robert Noe Jr., co-founder and CEO of Winthrop, said his firm is starting to see more of the larger teams funnel into the independent RIA channel. That channel saw six of these $1 billion-plus moves and $9.7 billion in assets during the three-month period.
That included the launch of Blue Horizon Equity on Cetera Financial’s Blueprint RIA platform, with over $3.5 billion in assets under administration and almost 50 advisors. Xcelsior Advisor Partners, an independent RIA, added Reeg Private Wealth, a former Baird team, with more than $1.4 billion in client assets.
The independent broker/dealer channel added six of these large teams, representing at least $8.1 billion.
Winthrop breaks out Rockefeller Capital Management into its own category, and reported three moves with at least $4.2 billion in assets during the three months. That included the addition of Jones Wealth Partners, a 14-person team in Ohio, to Rockefeller Global Family Office, from Merrill Lynch.
Raymond James was the top winner of billion-dollar teams, with four moves and $8.7 billion in assets during the period, followed by RBC, with four moves and $5.5 billion in assets. Merrill was also a big winner, with three moves representing at least $15.4 billion, according to Winthrop.
