Definition: The Broker Protocol (Protocol for Broker Recruiting), a 2004 agreement among signatory firms, permits an advisor moving between two signatories to take only the name, address, phone number, email address and account title of clients they serviced. They must resign in writing to branch management with a copy of that information and may solicit those clients only after joining the new firm.

Not a regulation. The Broker Protocol is a private agreement among firms. Neither the SEC nor FINRA wrote it or enforces it. Your own agreements still govern, and a securities lawyer should read them before you rely on it.

What does it cover?

  • It applies only when both the firm you leave and the firm you join are signatories, and a signatory can withdraw at any time.
  • The written resignation also lists the account numbers of those clients, for the old firm. If the old firm disputes the list, you are still treated as complying if you assembled it in good faith and substantially complied.
  • You may solicit those clients only after you have joined the new firm.
  • If you and the new firm follow it, neither of you has monetary or other liability to the old firm for taking that information or for soliciting those clients. The old firm can still sue the new firm for "raiding".
  • When a team splits (the Protocol says "team or partnership"), the team's written agreement decides which clients each departing member may take and solicit. Without one, a member who spent four or more years on the team in a producing capacity may take the information for, and solicit, all the team's clients; a member with less time, only the clients they introduced.
  • It limits how the new firm uses the information so that it complies with the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and the SEC's Regulation S-P. It does not replace them.

The text of the Protocol is three pages. Read it yourself rather than a summary.

Who is a member?

Citigroup Global Markets (Smith Barney), Merrill Lynch and UBS Financial Services first signed it in 2004. J.S. Held keeps the only official list of signatory firms and updates it weekly. Membership belongs to a named legal entity, broker-dealers and investment advisers both sign, and a firm can join with qualifications.

On the list dated October 19, 2026, Merrill Lynch and Wells Fargo Advisors are members with joinder qualifications, while Morgan Stanley and UBS withdrew in 2017 and Citigroup in 2018. Check the current list before relying on any summary, including this one.

Where it shows up in our data

Protocol status is not part of the SEC's registration records, so our movement data does not show it. What the data shows is where advisors actually went: Migration Lanes lists the firm-to-firm routes, and AdvisorWire shows each firm's arrivals and departures.

Sources

  1. Rule textRegulation S-P: Privacy of Consumer Financial Information SEC, via eCFR
  2. Continuum dataFirm-to-Firm Migration Lanes Continuum
  3. ReferenceThe Protocol for Broker Recruiting (text) J.S. Held
  4. ReferenceThe Broker Protocol: official list of signatory firms J.S. Held

Editorial standard: Continuum publishes education for financial advisors. It is general information, not legal, tax, or compliance advice.