Stifel Reports Record Revenue, CEO Mulls Broader Recruiting Push
Stifel followed the wirehouses with strong earnings results on Wednesday, including record annual revenue, and CEO Ron Kruszweski said he is considering allocating more capital and resources to recruiting advisors in 2026.
Stifel reported adding 181 advisors in 2025, double the amount it drew in 2024, with 92 of those representing $86 million in trailing 12-month revenue. Kruszewski said while the firm’s recruiting offers are “conservative,” they have been at the top of their range to remain competitive and outpace 2024 hires.
“We don’t operate in a vacuum when it comes to talent,” Kruszewski told analysts on an earnings call. “Comp levels go up as productivity goes up … if you go to most of the Street, you’ve seen an uptick in the comp ratio over time. We remain very consistent—it’s us trying to manage our growth while not giving up our margins.”
Kruszewski added that the recruiting success and the various business results it has driven have spurred him to consider allocating more resources to these efforts in 2026.
“If anything, I’m thinking about even increasing our allocation to recruiting because I think our platform and where we are allows us to gain even more market share if we choose—so that’s on my mind,” he said.
Kruszewski made the remarks during an earnings call in which Stifel reported its highest annual revenue since its founding in 1890 at $5.3 billion, though net income for the year fell 6.9% to $646.5 million. For the fourth quarter, Stifel reported revenue of $1.56 billion and net income of $255 million, both of which beat analyst estimates, according to Seeking Alpha.
The St. Louis-based firm also reported record client assets of $552 billion and record fee-based client assets of $224.5 billion.
Kruszewski said markets were overall strong in 2025, but that the year was “not without its challenges” due to geopolitical risks and policy-driven volatility.
Even so, Stifel’s leadership sees a relatively good year ahead, with a full-year revenue forecast range of $6 billion to $6.35 billion and net interest income of between $1.1 billion and $1.2 billion. The CEO also reiterated prior comments that he sees Stifel growing to $10 billion in revenue and $1 trillion in client assets, without providing a timeline.
Later in the call, Kruszweski was asked to provide more details on his idea to expand recruiting efforts. The CEO said he made the comment after reviewing the “mix of business” that new advisors bring, ranging from fee-based revenue to lending and cash balances.
“Everyone’s asking me about the utilization of capital and where do we want to put our dollars,” he said, noting the firm can buy back stock, consider acquisitions, increase the balance sheet, and that it has already increased its dividend.
He said the other area it can focus on is “to get after recruiting a little bit more,” he said. “We have been generally a shop where we want people to come to us. We don’t make a huge amount of outgoing phone calls. Advisors join us because they want to. It’s very effective, by the way, because you get people who want to be with us, but we might be able to pick up the phone here and there, and that’s what I’m thinking about.”
Some of Stifel’s recruiting efforts in 2025 came from the acquisition of some of B. Riley’s wealth management business, which brought on 36 advisors.
Separately, Stifel also reduced some advisor overhead—along with about $9 billion in client assets—by selling its independent advisor division to Equitable Advisors last year and by cutting some of its European business.
On the call, Chief Financial Officer Jim Marischen said those businesses were “well north of our consolidated 58% comp-to-revenue total,” meaning their sale and restructuring have shed those compensation expenses for the firm.