Tuesday, December 1, 2015

More Credit Suisse Defections - Advisors With $1.4B go to J.P. Morgan

We have been discussing this for weeks now - Credit Suisse and Wells Fargo made a mistake when they capped transition bonuses at 5 million dollars.

Now, maybe Wells Fargo entered the deal with Credit Suisse, knowing that it was not going to take any big producers, but that is doubtful. Producers with over a billion dollars under management are not going to accept a cap on the transition bonus of $5 million. JP Morgan and UBS know that, and are scooping up Credit Suisse brokers.

Today's latest defection, from IAG News

 "Two Credit Suisse teams managing over $1.4 billion in combined client assets passed on an offer to join Wells Fargo, choosing instead to move to J.P. Morgan, a spokeswoman acknowledged.

Credit Suisse and Wells Fargo struck a deal over a month ago, permitting the wirehouse to offer the Swiss firm's advisers up to 300% of their annual production to transition to Wells Fargo, according to people familiar with the matter. However, some advisers have been opting to join other the wirehouse competitors or more specifically, J.P Morgan Securities."

Some will argue that because of the way Credit Suisse structured the deal, brokers are giving up their deferred compensation. That might not be the case, depending on the details, but the simple fact is that these deals are negotiable, and firms will compensate brokers for the loss of deferred compensation.

The other question is why does Credit Suisse get to keep its employees' compensation when it decides to exit the business? Those deferred compensation dollars do not belong to Credit Suisse, it is compensation that is owed to the brokers, which was deferred based, at a minimum, that the firm was going to remain in business during the vesting period.

Brokers in transition, and brokers with deferred compensation issues should be contacting experienced securities attorneys to review their options. The attorneys at Sallah Astarita & Cox will provide a free consultation - call Mark Astarita at 212-509-6544 or email him at mja@sallahlaw.com


Advisors With $1.4B Leave Credit Suisse For J.P. Morgan