Transitions & transfers
Broker Protocol
Protocol for Broker Recruiting
The Broker Protocol (formally the Protocol for Broker Recruiting) is a voluntary agreement among member firms that lets a departing advisor take a limited, defined set of client contact information to a new firm without triggering litigation, provided they follow its steps.
The Protocol for Broker Recruiting — usually just "the Broker Protocol" — is an inter-firm agreement established in 2004 to reduce recruiting-related lawsuits. When both the departing and receiving firms are signatories, an advisor who follows the Protocol can take a specified set of client contact details (name, address, phone, email, and account title) and solicit those clients at the new firm. Not all firms are members.
Whether a move is a Protocol move or a non-Protocol move changes what information can travel and how the transition is handled. Protocol moves are more predictable; non-Protocol moves are more constrained and require extra care around what data can be used and a clean audit trail.
The Protocol governs what an advisor may take, not how the accounts get rebuilt — the client paperwork still has to be repapered and the assets still move through ACATS at the new custodian.
Also called: Protocol for Broker Recruiting, the Protocol.
Related terms
See how FastTrackr handles this in practice.
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