Yeah the mass exodus of offices is a dream made up by recruiters…not heard an talk of this anywhre in my region.

[quote=Devil’sAdvocate]

Entire AGE offices are going to join firms like Stiffel or Janney who are using this as a great reason to establish offices in cities where they have never been heretofore.

Wachovia will be disappointed by the retention.

[/quote]

Let's not forget that Stiffel is based out of St.Louis. I know for a fact that some of their senior exec's are scoping out new office space in city's that they currently don't have a office but soon will. Although mass exodus is a bit extreme, expect Wachovia management to be surprised at retention leakage. 

Last week Wachovia began holding conferences in St.Louis for all of the branch managers from accross the country.  The conference began with Bagby giving a 5 min introduction to WS senior exec Danny Ludemann...Danny then proceeded to speak for the next 2 hours laying out the vision and execution of the merger & then answering questions.  Bagby sat there and looked like a clown during the entire meeting...funny thing seeing what was once the big fish in the sea, now only a guppy.  It is clear to many long time AGE brokers that Bag's will not play a major role in the new organization & they feel betrayed & sold out by bag's. They are a quiet but powerful group that will speak with their feet in the near term.

I will agree that Stifel’s package they sent did stand out…but there are alot of drawbacks I can see…definitely a step back in time to the OLD AGE culture…but also a big step back in name recognition, products technology etc…and I think by going to any of the smaller regionals you will be going through 2 transitions in teh next few years…one to the new firm and another when they are also bought out. Just delaying the inevitable for a little longer

[quote=shredder]

I would be shocked with those names above.  I’ve heard of a couple offices looking but with the 2 larger indy names. It especially makes sense with the duplicating offices so the manager can still be the manager, get a piece of the action, and prolong the opportunity for smaller producers/rookies to get up and running.   
[/quote]

First off, not every overlapping office is going to close.  Look at Legg + SB, not every office eveporated....Same with UBS + Piper.Secondly, the thought that whole offices will defect in mass is nonsense.  There will be attrition, no doubt. MASS ATTRITIONon a branch level= not happening. Remember, managers are prohibited from "raiding" offices, so the idea that they can just 'change the name on the door' is a fantasy.  Bottom line, time is on our side.

Re the BOM meetings. They have been going on since early June and are all complete. The general consensus is that this could be something special.  Danny seems like a straight shooter. Not everyone has drunk the kool-aide but the vast majority are very positive on this whole thing going forward. Most that I know and speak with are over this whole “we’ve been sold out thing”.  We all know Bagby will have no power in the new structure. I’ll wager that he is outta hear come Jan '09.  Look, while everyone from WS got some reecognition from the attendees, Bagby got stone cold silence when he came up.  The bottom line is most BOM’s are pragmatic, they’ll see how things shape up. It’s way to early to be making plans about jumping ship. Most will continue to do their due diligence but the overall the mood at the end of these meetings is extremely positive. I know that is not what some of you want to hear but that’s the truth.  Will there be some attrition, YES and probably greater than the 3% # WS is tossing around. Beside if AGE got rid of the bottom 20% (with over 10 yrs in the bus.) I don’t think anyone would miss them anyway.  Will some BOM’s lose their jobs, probably. Most won’t. Believe me, there are plenty of BOM’s that are ready to hang up the cleats and just produce.  This could be their “perfect reason”. Stifel might get some, Janney might get some, but they’ll be table scraps and not a whole lot more.  By the time we know more of the details and the transition is well under way, it will be 6 months from now.  I think people will be pleasantly surprised at what this could be and how little turn over there really is. FYI - it looks like if you take the cash bonus, the loan is forgiven monthly. If you take the installement, it is forgiven in 1/6’s. Just another reason to show me the money.

I agree w Shredder…exactly the same things I have heard

BTW, according to RR, WS will open Finet to WS people doing at least 250,000 w/ 5 yrs LOS. Eventually.

Actually, the article says a lot of things that were brought up here (almost like they come here for unsolicited opinions).

[quote=Whomitmayconcer]BTW, according to RR, WS will open Finet to WS people doing at least 250,000 w/ 5 yrs LOS. Eventually.

Actually, the article says a lot of things that were brought up here (almost like they come here for unsolicited opinions).[/quote]

...I've noticed that also...this place is like a gold mine for article ideas...

It’s smart of them, although I/we would like a prop now and again.

For those wondering if RJ is attracting AGE reps the answer is yes.  Here at RJ the regional sends a blast email to all fa's when a new transfer broker is hired.  They list his/her name, office that he is joining, length of service in the business and the firm he came from. 

There has been several dozen AGE rr's hired in the last 6 weeks. Some of them were complete teams. 

This trend will only snowball once AG fa's realize they will soon have a barcode on their head.

Thanks for the update, tampon.

Nice one!

This trend will only snowball once AG fa's realize they will soon have a barcode on their head.

[/quote]

[quote=Tarpon]

For those wondering if RJ is attracting AGE reps the answer is yes.  Here at RJ the regional sends a blast email to all fa's when a new transfer broker is hired.  They list his/her name, office that he is joining, length of service in the business and the firm he came from. 

There has been several dozen AGE rr's hired in the last 6 weeks. Some of them were complete teams. 

This trend will only snowball once AG fa's realize they will soon have a barcode on their head.

[/quote]

The last broker head count I saw showed that AGE was down to less than 5,400 rep's.  I find it amazing that they had over 6000 rep's at this time last year.  I'm hearing that the majority of the rep's going to RJ are going to the independent plateform. That's interesting that so many are turning their backs on wall street retention packages.  Could this suggest a trend?

 [/quote]

The last broker head count I saw showed that AGE was down to less than 5,400 rep's.  I find it amazing that they had over 6000 rep's at this time last year.  I'm hearing that the majority of the rep's going to RJ are going to the independent plateform. That's interesting that so many are turning their backs on wall street retention packages.  Could this suggest a trend?

[/quote]

5400=Don't know where you come up with that crazy #!! The number is just over 6500 as of June. Down from about 6800 same time last year.

Bah the press doesn’t need real numbers. It’s just easier if they make them

up.

Is anyone hearing of more defections? I’ve seen a couple more, again by lower producers squeezed out at the 300k tt level. They went to other regionals.

I believe that the real defections have not yet begun. Many will take the path of least resistance until summer (or so) of 2008, when the real changes (like pay-cuts) will begin being announced. There are many of us who are putting together transition plans at a comfortable pace and will actually leave sometime between the end of this year and 3rd quarter of next. IMHO there will be substantial attrition. We will see how many put their autographs on the lump sum retention package agreement (by August 31). I reckon that many who don’t intend to stay indefinitely won’t put their signatures on anything that contains the words “Non-Solicitation Agreement” no matter how break-away they claim it is.