Israeli Investment Advisors Move Beyond Bank Branches as Assets Hit Record Highs
Despite a decline in bank investment advisor positions, Israeli capital in advised portfolios reached a peak of 485.6 billion shekels, signaling a shift to independent and external management.
In recent years, an increasing number of Israelis have been opening independent investment and trading accounts. They enter the market through apps, select products themselves, monitor their portfolios in real time, and grow accustomed to performing actions that previously required a visit to a bank branch.
Simultaneously, the number of investment advisor positions in banks continues to decline. Over four years, the number of bank investment advisors dropped from 1,360 to 1,068. On the surface, this looks like a story of a profession being squeezed out. However, Dani Breitman, founder and CEO of Bmeniv Investment House, suggests reading the data differently. "I read that same number differently," he tells Maariv. "The public hasn't stopped investing; they started doing it on their own. Demand hasn't dropped; it left the branch."
The Shift in Capital and Assets
Furthermore, Breitman points to the fact that money in bank-advised portfolios actually climbed to a peak of 485.6 billion shekels. In other words, fewer advisors are working within the banking system, but the volume of assets receiving advice has not shrunk. "If the demand for advice had dried up, that would have been the first figure to drop," Breitman says. "It went up. The real question has never been whether there is demand. The question is where it is being met."
Indeed, alongside the banks, the portfolio management sector grew by 18.5% in 2025, reaching 493 billion shekels managed by 131 licensed companies. "Staff reductions at a single employer, large as it may be, is a decision about that employer's cost structure. It is not a measure of the amount of work that exists in the market," he notes. "When one large employer cuts back, the profession does not disappear. It disperses. It spreads to investment houses, portfolio management firms, and independent offices of licensed professionals. The branch has stopped being the only place where someone who understands the capital market sits."
A Changing Profession
Breitman knows the change from personal experience as well. "For ten years I was inside a bank," he says. "The license was registered in my name, not the bank's. That sounds like a technical detail, but in practice, it is the whole difference. The position is determined by the employer. The skills, certification, and ability to work with a client remain with the professional."
Therefore, he concludes, anyone hesitating today about entering the profession should not look solely at the number of positions in banks. The broader picture includes the volume of advised capital, growth in portfolio management, the number of licensed companies, and hundreds of thousands of independent accounts opened in recent years that may later turn into potential clients as portfolios grow and decisions become more complex. For Breitman, these are not signs of a disappearing market, but of a market looking for professionals in new places and through different models.
"The profession is not disappearing," Breitman concludes. "Anyone who views themselves as holding a role in a bank sees every organizational change there as the end of the road. Anyone who views themselves as a license holder sees that same change as a move between addresses within a growing market."
