Citigroup Brokers: A Vanishing Breed

Seems like only yesterday that Citigroup had thousands of brokers, thanks to Smith Barney. Citi still has plenty of investment salespeople in its branches. But not for long, according to The Financial Times:

Citi will begin referring some wealthy customers who deal with 550 brokers based in some of its 1,000-plus branches to independent financial advisers.

Under the new strategy, Citi will receive a referral fee for each customer they direct to an independent adviser.

Citi will also retrain some of its brokers to be part of internal teams of fee-based financial consultants as well as helping customers to choose between internal and external advisers.

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Citi plans to eliminate all commission-based compensation by 2011.