FiNet's bank-team raid redraws the independent channel

In one 24-hour stretch, Wells Fargo FiNet took a billion-dollar team from Truist without buying the practice, the seven-person team landing inside an existing Merritt Point practice rather than a newly formed RIA. A $1 billion book is the size of many midsize RIAs, and its movement in a single liftout suggests the independent broker-dealer channel has reached the scale where bank teams no longer treat it as a step down.

FiNet did not stop there. Frederick Spagnola led a two-advisor team from UBS Financial Services to FiNet, and Gabriel Armancas moved a $140 million practice from Ameriprise, all three moves landing in the same tracked period and leaving a bank-owned independent platform pulling from three employee firms at once. UBS remains one of the most active names in the tracking, with multiple advisor moves recorded, and the $140 million Ameriprise book—small next to the $1 billion Truist liftout—shows FiNet will take smaller practices that broaden the funnel.

RIAs have spent a decade convincing bank teams that independence requires a custodial account, a new entity, and a fee-only posture. FiNet is offering the same label with broker-dealer mechanics intact, and the Truist team's choice of an existing Merritt Point practice over a newly formed RIA suggests the wrapper is being used as a consolidation vehicle. The economics explain part of the appeal: a team can move its book into an established practice without building compliance, payroll, or technology from zero—a different exit than the full breakaway, and one that shortens the decision for teams that do not want to build a business from scratch.

The employee-channel churn extends well beyond Truist: UBS recorded 120 advisor events in the past 30 days, but OpenArc and OneDigital together logged 149, clearing the wirehouse, and Kestra Financial pulled Kelly Apple from BlackRock to add a distribution executive to its recruiting push. Across the tracking, the direction runs one way—teams are leaving bank and wirehouse payrolls for independent platforms that do not ask them to rebuild infrastructure, and the benefits-and-retirement complex OpenArc and OneDigital represent is now out-recruiting a wirehouse at the event level.

If the independent broker-dealer channel becomes the default landing spot for bank teams, Wells Fargo captures the advisory relationship without owning the advisor—a risk profile different from the old employee model, and one reason FiNet can move faster than a full RIA acquirer. The Truist liftout now reads as a template: a bank team can leave its employer, keep its book, and never leave the bank's orbit.

The independent broker-dealer was once the fallback for teams that could not meet RIA custody minimums; now it is the destination for teams that want out of the employee channel without betting their book on a new venture, and that changes the recruiting math. A regional bank team can leave by merging into an existing FiNet practice—faster and likely cheaper than a full RIA breakaway—and the bank-owned independent channel is the one offering it. Watch whether more Truist and UBS teams follow the Merritt Point template before the recruiting cycle turns.