what is a wirehouse broker 
a wirehouse broker advises clients and trades stocks and other assets on their behalf as an employee of a full service brokerage house the word wirehouse implies that they are employed by one of the big players rather than working on their own or with an independent broker dealer company the four largest and best known full service wirehouse brokerage firms today are morgan stanley bank of america s merrill lynch ubs and wells fargo wirehouse is an archaic term for a broker dealer the number of financial advisors that merrill lynch has on its payroll morgan stanley has nearly 17 000 12wirehouse broker explainedbefore the advent of modern wireless communications brokerage firms were connected to their branches primarily through telephone and telegraph wires this gave branch offices access to the same market information as the head office allowing brokers to provide stock quotes and market news to their clients a wirehouse broker then and now is typically a full service broker that offers research investment advice and order execution by being affiliated with a wirehouse the broker gains access to the firm s proprietary investment products research and technology it was once thought that only brokers affiliated with the largest wirehouse firms could provide top service to their clients independent brokers were often assumed to be sellers of prepackaged products and were viewed as second class citizens in the financial world things have changed in this regard as an independent broker has access to top quality research wirehouses and the financial crisisthe global financial crisis led to unprecedented turmoil at wirehouses primarily because of the very substantial exposure that many of them had to mortgage backed securities at the time they collapsed a number of the smaller players were forced to close shop some of the most prominent names in the industry such as merrill lynch and bear stearns were acquired by bigger banks some disappeared into bankruptcy notably lehman brothers 3these events served to level the playing field as wirehouse brokers looked for new options after leaving the failed firms wirehouses and independents todaymost present day wirehouses are full service brokerages that provide a complete range of services to clients from investment banking and research to trading and wealth management although the proliferation of discount brokerages and online quotes has eroded the edge in market information that the wirehouses formerly possessed their diversified activities in capital markets continue to make them very profitable entities nevertheless some wirehouse brokers have opted to work as independents independent broker dealers such as raymond james and ameriprise have been morphing into wealth management advisors by 2023 they had 6 545 associates managing 295 3 billion in client assets 4