An Update on Equitable Advisors Experienced Advisor Recruiting in 2024

2023 Highlights

2023 was literally a breakout year for Equitable Advisors. Beginning in May the parent Equitable began reporting Equitable Advisors/Wealth Management business as a segment alongside Equitable and Alliance Bernstein. For the first time, we shared with the market the financial performance that represents the dedication and hard work of our 4,400 financial advisors and the quality of their client relationships. We continue to add to our team of professionals and finding new ways to increase productivity. This is supported by our holistic advice model that is resonating with clients and advisors alike.

At the Equitable first ever Investor Day, which was held in May 2023, Equitable Advisors announced our goal to achieve 15% operating earnings growth annually through 2027 in our Wealth Management business.

In coordination with this segmentation, in 2023 we created new messaging, developed new web sites, interfaced with industry media, and developed numerous new marketing pieces. As the wealth management industry has evolved towards holistic planning, open architecture, and independence, Equitable Advisors is well positioned as a leader in this space.?

?Where Equitable Advisors Fits

We realize that no one platform can be all things to all advisors. However, what we’ve observed is that advisors have come to understand that payout is simply one, albeit important, part of their business model relationship. What they have gravitated towards is a trade-off of the highest payout for a level of support that can fuel their growth at a faster pace than if they were to go it alone. It's the true net payout that matters the most by factoring in higher levels of support. That’s Equitable Advisors’ value proposition – we offer advisors the benefits of being independent, but with the support that’s provided by an institutional infrastructure. We call this model “Supported Independence”.

What Advisor Type Fits with Equitable Advisors

So, what kind of experienced advisor is the best fit with Equitable Advisors? The most obvious are those coming from the W-2 models like the wires, banks and some regionals. A high payout with no support is a bridge too far for them. So “Supported Independence” resonates well with this segment. There are also some long time RIA’s who want to take some money off the table, but don’t want to be a part of an RIA aggregator. We can partner with them using our vast assets while also being able to provide them with capital to make acquisitions given the age demographic of our industry. And there are RIA’s and/or Hybrids who have their own RIA but want operations and compliance support to free up their time so they can focus on serving their clients and growing their practice. So they are willing to forgo having their own RIA to become an IAR while offloading all of the administrative duties enabling them to grow faster by spending more time on their clients and acquisitions.

?In addition, Equitable Advisors hires hundreds of early career financial professionals each year and provides them with a strong training and support program. According to a recent report by Cerulli, about 72 percent of rookie financial professionals failed or left the industry. Equitable Advisors’ churn rate is only 7% meaning we retain 93% in their first year. This high retention rate allows our experienced advisors to tap into a quality pool of early career professionals to build teams and plan for their succession. This has also been a big factor in recruiting teams.

Notable Recent Joins

In December we onboarded Steven Levenson from Ameriprise in South Florida, Nathan Bilotta from Lincoln in New England and Michael Shieh from Cetera in SoCal among many others. This month we onboarded Kenny Foley in Texas from Wells Fargo, Andrew Chabot in SoCal from Osaic and Frank Rizzo in NYC also from Osaic. Southern California also onboarded Kendyl Roundtree and Gary Stemple, both from Lincoln Financial Advisors.

Our Experienced Advisor Recruiting momentum is now greater than ever and we have a strong pipeline in place to build on this traction. We want to thank all our recruiting partners for our recent success.

We look forward to growing even stronger through Experienced Advisor recruiting and will keep you updated through these quarterly articles.

-John Lefferts

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Equitable Advisors, LLC, member FINRA, SIPC, (Equitable Financial Advisors in MI and TN) and affiliate, Equitable Network, LLC, (Equitable Network Insurance Agency of California, LLC; Equitable Network Insurance Agency of Utah, LLC; Equitable Network of Puerto Rico, Inc.) are Equal Opportunity Employers M/F/D/V.? For purposes of this discussion, “advisor” is used as a general term to describe insurance/annuity, investment sales, and advisory professionals who may hold licensing as insurance agents, registrations with broker-dealers, and registrations as investment advisory representatives (IAR) of registered investment advisors, respectively. “Advisor” in this context is not intended to necessarily refer to IAR offered fee-based financial advisory/planning services. AGE- 6421072.1 (2/24)(Exp.2/26