Non-compete clauses are widespread options of employment agreements across the enterprise world and are sometimes used to dissuade firms from ‘poaching’ one other’s staff, and/or to forestall staff (not less than for a sure time interval) from taking the data gained from working at one firm to a competitor. Which may enable firms to guard the ‘investments‘ they’ve made of their staff and keep continuity amongst their workers.
Nevertheless, these agreements will also be unduly restrictive in the direction of staff, limiting their capacity to advance inside their chosen trade, which is particularly problematic in expert professions which may have required years of schooling and coaching simply to enter within the first place. Additional, critics of non-compete agreements argue that they prohibit dynamism within the general economic system by making it more durable for companies to rent (because the pool of candidates might be smaller in industries the place non-competes are prevalent), and for workers topic to non-competes to begin new firms.
With these elements in thoughts, the Federal Commerce Fee (FTC) in April of 2024 introduced a last rule banning most non-competes nationwide that’s anticipated to take impact (pending authorized challenges) on September 4, 2024. To adjust to the rule, employers are required to present written discover to related employees (which embody staff and impartial contractors, amongst different classes), letting them know that their non-compete agreements are unenforceable and won’t be enforced.
Notably, the ban contains exemptions for “senior executives“ who beforehand had signed a non-compete (new non-competes are banned for all staff, together with senior executives) and within the case of a “bona fide sale of a enterprise entity, of the individual’s possession curiosity in a enterprise entity, or of all or considerably all of a enterprise entity’s working property“. This latter exemption implies that monetary advisors with an possession curiosity of their firm (even a really small one) may nonetheless be topic to a non-compete as a time period of the sale of their stake (which may impression how they worth receiving an possession curiosity of their agency).
Moreover, the regulation doesn’t prohibit non-solicit agreements (which prohibit a departing worker from soliciting the purchasers of their former employer for a specified time interval), that are extra widespread than non-competes within the monetary recommendation trade, that means that non-solicit agreements can stay in place, and would possibly even change into extra prevalent amongst corporations which are now not capable of implement non-competes. However as a result of implementing non-solicits may be much less clear-cut than implementing non-competes (provided that it’s tougher to inform whether or not a person is actively soliciting their former employer’s purchasers in comparison with acquiring a job at a competitor or beginning their very own enterprise), the variety of authorized battles over non-solicits may enhance as their use rises. Which may make it extra advantageous for corporations and advisors alike to contemplate a extra equitable, cooperative strategy than strict on-competes or non-solicits to deciding which purchasers an advisor can solicit in the event that they do ultimately depart the agency.
In the end, the important thing level is that the FTC’s ban on non-competes might present advisors with elevated flexibility to maneuver amongst corporations inside the monetary recommendation trade, whereas additionally providing the chance for each monetary advisory corporations and their advisors to revisit their employment agreements… not solely to make sure that they adjust to the FTC’s last rule, but in addition in order that they higher meet the wants advisors and their corporations!