For 14 years,Jason DiLauro was the epitome of the Merrill Lynch financial advisor who was devoted to the firm. Based in Merrill's Akron, Ohio office, DiLauro was a big producer and even ran coaching sessions for new recruits at the firm's center in Princeton, N.J.

"I loved it there," the 39-year-old DiLauro says of Merrill. "I never ever imagined leaving there. I kind of considered myself the poster child for the firm. The whole 'Total Merrill.'"

No longer. Nearly three months ago, DiLauro picked up and left. He set himself up as an independent through Raymond James Financial Services four miles from his previous office.

"I'm still in the go-go-go phase over here," he laughs. DiLauro abandoned the wirehouse world for the independents and isn't looking back.

If he was once the poster child for Merrill, he is now the profile of the new independent financial advisor. With the wirehouses buckling under the heat of the economic meltdown and ownership of the once mightiest brokerage firms changing hands, more and more wirehouse advisors are giving independent firms a very careful look.

Of the roughly 15,000 advisors leaving national full-service brokerage firms annually, 4,275 of them choose a form of independence, according to Charles Schwab.

After all, the transformation of the traditional wirehouse space has been coming fast and furious in the past several months. The headlines have been unforgiving. Outrage over perceived Wall Street excesses coupled with a trillion-dollar loss in American wealth only chipped away at the already tarnished images of the wirehouses.

As part of its buying spree that included troubled mortgage lender, Countrywide Financial, Bank of America also acquired Merrill Lynch last year, in large part to grab its 14,000 brokers. Bank of America's chief executive officer Ken Lewis later took heavy criticism for the deal once Merrill proved to be a drag on earnings in the fourth quarter. But more recently, Lewis stated that Merrill contributed $3.7 billion to BofA's $4.2 billion profit in the first quarter of this year.

Morgan Stanley, one of the healthier wirehouses, entered into a joint venture with Smith Barney, the brokerage arm of troubled giant, Citigroup. The deal gives Morgan 51% ownership of the joint venture and Citigroup 49%, with Morgan getting the right to increase its stake over the next five years until it owns all of it.

Wells Fargo bought Wachovia Securities, creating a 16,000 advisor force.

Only UBS, with its UBS Wealth Management Americas arm, hasn't changed hands. But, it too has suffered from the global economic malaise. In addition, its much-publicized legal battle with the Internal Revenue Service over divulging the names of U.S. clients who may have evaded taxes through offshore accounts hasn't helped its reputation.

All these events have created a perfect storm of recruiting for independent firms. "We're seeing a lot more inquiries and more due diligence trips," says Scott Carlson, the senior vice president in charge of sales and distribution at Woodbury Financial Services, the independent broker-dealer arm of Hartford Life. Between the beginning of the year and mid-June, Woodbury hired 130 registered representatives. The vast majority, 82% or 106 reps, came from other independent firms. Another 11 reps or 8% came from wirehouse firms.

"The wirehouse people, in particular, are looking for comparisons," Carlson says. But, he adds, "they are not as quick to move as an independent broker-dealer representative or a captive rep." Carlson, who has been at the Woodbury, Minn.-based firm for 16 years, explains that the reason that wirehouse advisors are more cautious about making the jump is the culture shock. "They really have to analyze the costs and benefits."

OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS

The increase in movement among advisors is apparent to Bill Van Law, senior vice president and Director of Business Development at Raymond James Financial Services. "We were up 45% last year over 2007," he says, predicting an even stronger year in 2009. "This year we have people being more active. With all the stuff going on in the industry, it has created an incredible amount of dissatisfaction."

In fact, he adds, recruiting for his firm has been up 134% between May 31 of this year and last Oct. 1, the beginning of RJFS's fiscal year. The numbers from the large wirehouses are up 373% over that time period, says Van Law.

Dissatisfaction spelled opportunity for firms like Raymond James Financial. "We recognized in the fall that things were changing," Van Law says.

Indeed on Sunday, Sept. 14, Van Law touched down in Lima, Peru at 2 AM for the firm's chairman's council event. But it was also the day that the rumors of the demise of Lehman Brothers and the troubles of Merrill Lynch were reaching a crescendo. Finally, Lehman declared bankruptcy and Merrill Lynch announced it was being taken over by BofA. "I worked in my hotel room that day and took the red-eye home that night," Van law recalls. "I recognized that this was a very, very significant opportunity for us. I said, 'we've got work to do.' What I did was just really try to lead the team to be out there and take advantage."