Stifel CEO eyes bigger recruiting budget after strong 2025

Stifel Financial reported a record year for its wealth management business, with a wave of recruitment helping the division mark all-time highs for revenue and total client assets in the fourth quarter of 2025.

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On an earnings call Wednesday, Stifel CEO Ron Kruszewski said that 2025 was the firm’s “strongest financial advisor recruiting year since 2018.”

The St. Louis-based firm brought on 14 financial advisors during the quarter, including nine experienced employee advisors who generated a combined $5.4 million in trailing 12-month production. For the full year, the firm added 181 advisors in total, among them 54 experienced employee advisors, two experienced independent advisors and 36 experienced advisors from B. Riley, together accounting for $86.3 million in trailing 12-month production.

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Compensation costs rose alongside the firm’s hiring push. In the fourth quarter, pay and benefits grew faster than overall spending, climbing 11.6% year over year to $468 million. Total expenses increased 9.9% over the same period, reaching $603 million.

Kruszewski said that while Stifel tends to be “conservative” with its recruiting offers, recent recruiting has pushed the firm toward the “top end” of its pay range.

“We don’t operate in a vacuum when it comes to talent,” Kruszewski said. “If you go to most of the Street, what you’ve seen is an uptick in the comp ratio over time. … And we remain very consistent, and what that is, is it’s us trying to manage our growth while not giving up our margins.”

Kruszewski said the success of the firm’s recruiting push — and the business gains it has delivered — has prompted him to consider devoting additional resources to those efforts in 2026.

“If anything, I’m thinking about even increasing our allocation to recruiting because I think our platform and where we are allow us to really gain even more market share if we choose,” he said. “So that’s on my mind.”

A long-term vision for Stifel

Looking forward, Kruszewski said that he’s confident in Stifel’s ability to double its business over time thanks to its “long-term track record of disciplined execution.”

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“Yes, I still believe we’ll reach $10 billion in revenue and $1 trillion in client assets,” he said. “And no, I’m not going to give you a time frame.”

Strong recruiting drives record revenue, client assets

Stifel’s wealth management division ended the year with record net revenue of $933 million for the quarter and $3.54 billion for the year, up 7.9% and 7.7% year over year, respectively.

Total client assets swelled to $552 billion by year’s end, up 10% over the same period in the previous year. Fee-based client assets specifically — a focus for the firm — reached $225 billion, up 16.5% year over year.

Kruszewski said that while 2025 was a “strong year for markets,” it also presented a number of economic and political challenges.

“Economic resilience, healthy balance sheets and improving capital markets activity supported growth even as volatility, geopolitical risk and policy uncertainty remain very real,” he said. “As the environment strengthened during the year, our focus on client service allowed us to capitalize on the improving market trends.”

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Kruszewski, while noting that political uncertainty remains a challenge, has praised President Donald Trump’s negotiating style in a recent interview with Bloomberg TV at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week.

“Is anyone surprised that the president does not practice Davos diplomacy?” Kruszewski said during his interview with Bloomberg. “What would take usually 20 speeches and maybe 10 state dinners to make one-tenth of the point, he made in an hour yesterday. It’s just style. He throws it against the wall. I’m sitting there going, ‘This will be resolved in a couple of days.’ It was actually resolved in a couple of hours.”