Legacy AGE FC's jumping ship?
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With WB on the auction block, the stock potentially going the route of WM, what are legacy age fc’s thinking at this point - wait and see or head somewhere else? Have there been any recent (last couple weeks) defections and where did they go to? I would think RJ and SF would clean up given recent events and I am pondering it too.
No one in my office has left we have lost 1 of 20 since the original merger…interesting to see what happens now…but honestly with all the chaos…I would be just as weary moving anywhere right now
there’s lots of talk w/ various players on all kinds of levels. I have heard that defections in the past few weeks have been rather numerous, which might explain Danny’s attitude in the last conf. call. It is only prudent to do the due diligence.
I guess we’ll know by tomorrow morning:
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE48R45R20080929I only heard from one recruiter yesterday. The way I see it is that MER, SB, MS are too much of a cluster you-know-what to look at. We could be entering a similar time to May 2007 after the deal was announced - lots of blood in the water for recruiters.
So any word (granted it’s been two days) of Legacy AGE guys jumping? I know it’s on the minds of everyone.
Gordo,
It’s way too early to expect to see people leaving - at least as a direct result of the WB sale. Remember when WB bought AGE - it takes months before you see serious movement. People need some time to entertain other offers/options and plan for an orderly departure, and they generally want to do so with full knowledge of what things would look like if they stayed. Hasn’t been enough time for either one of those things to happen yet. I would assume any departures this week or in the next couple of weeks would have been in the pipeline prior to the announcement.
You won’t see ‘jumping’ just yet, BUT, don’t assume for a moment that a ton of FAs are not talking. It takes 45-90 days for deals to get done depending on a lot of factors. If there are waves of movement out of the firm they’ll occur around and after Thanksgiving and late December. I think it naive to NOT be at least talking and getting plan’s B and C in place given the environment now
What would you say is the best way to handle the repayment of the loan-bonus obligation if you were to move:
1. Pay it off ahead of time (way ahead) under the guise of not wanting it hanging over your head (like anyone would buy that). 2. Attach a check to your "I quit" letter as they escort you out the door 3. Any other option I am not thinking aboutI for one am anxious to see the response of home office.
On one hand all of St.Louis\Charlotte will be in a state of dissaray so it will be interesting to see their response to the first wave of reps that will abandon ship by year end. Age legacy guys never had to sign anything resembling a non compete as AGE reps BUT after Wachovia came in we were required to sign an agreement to get the bonus money. This agreement was in effect a form of a non compete agreement contingent on the repayment of the bonus money if we did not complete the required terms of service. It's been over a year since I looked at my retention package but I think it was either a 7yr or 10yr requirement. Either way I hope that if you took the cash you DIDN'T invest it in WB stock or you're screwed.[quote=Gordon Gekko]
Wherever you (or I) go would double what WS gave so I would have to do some slight borrowing with the idea the new firm would give me an even bigger gob of cash. Way back when I actually called St. Louis to get the payoff info if in fact I wanted to pay it off early. They shot me a copy of the amortization schedule and the person to send it to. Right now that money is more of a pain the butt with nothing working in the investing world and a giant obligation hanging over my head. I might stay and still pay that thing off...[/quote]Deals are going down, and soon.
http://www.dailygazette.com/news/2008/oct/01/1001_wachoviamerrill/
As someone who left, I know this feeling all too well.If you are thinking about it, I suggest getting your ducks in a row to pay back what you owe. The arbitrations are going to the house. Of course, this may be different with all the caca hitting the fan that used to be WB, but then you have a distraction you don’t need when you are trying to talk to your book.
Paying the note is not a problem, it's a matter in my mind of when. Reading the above link, I can't determine if WS was up in arms because of the size of the producer leaving, the fact that the took other employees, he took WS "stuff" with him, or a combo of the three. This guy was a Pru broker but it causes some concern for Legacy AGE guys who were pitched something amounting to "pay back the loan and you are good to go".
To be sure, I think they are up in arms about all of the above. But, the things that brings them to the court are the documents and the “copying of his entire e-mail account”. This new protocol is pretty specific. However, we had a couple of guys leave our office and had them on tape in early hours carrying boxes of files and the lawyers did nothing. Nobody could say what was in the boxes. But the WS to ML guy in the story brought WS docs to a client/event meeting and now they have proof that the docs were taken, per the story in the link.