Moving firms

The Protocol, non-solicits, and moving your clients

Advisors who leave one firm for another operate inside a framework most of them learn about a week before they resign. Whether both firms participate in the Protocol for Broker Recruiting changes what you may take with you and what happens in the first forty-eight hours.

What the Protocol is

The Protocol for Broker Recruiting is a voluntary agreement among participating firms that permits a departing advisor to take a limited set of client contact information and to solicit those clients, provided the exit follows the agreed procedure. It is an industry arrangement, not a law, and firms have joined and left it over time.

Check membership on the day, not from memory

Several large firms have withdrawn from the Protocol, and membership can change. Whether the Protocol applies to your move depends on both the firm you are leaving and the firm you are joining, as of the day you resign. Verify it then — not from an article, and not from a colleague who moved three years ago.

Where advisors get into trouble

Almost all disputes trace to preparation rather than to the move itself: exporting client data before resigning, contacting clients before the exit is complete, or taking more than the permitted fields. Firms monitor for exactly this, and a temporary restraining order in the first week is expensive and public.

Garden leave and notice

Some agreements now require a notice period during which you remain employed but are removed from client contact, giving the firm an uncontested window with your clients. Where that applies, it usually matters more to the outcome than the Protocol does.

Why this belongs on a page about value

Every client who does not follow you is value you never realized. The mechanics of the move are, in economic terms, part of what the book is worth.

Not legal advice. Protocol membership, non-solicits and notice provisions are firm-specific and change. Retain counsel before you resign, not after.

Who Owns My Book of Business is an authorized lead-generation partner of buyAUM. buyAUM compensates us only if a transition is completed. Sellers are never charged a fee at any stage. Nothing on this site is legal, tax, or compliance advice.