Stifel Financial Corp.’s story begins in 1890 in St. Louis as Altheimer & Rawlings Investment Co., a small brokerage firm. It adopted the Stifel name in 1917, became Stifel, Nicolaus & Company in 1923, and reorganized as Stifel Financial Corp., a publicly traded holding company, in 1983 (with NYSE listing in 1987). Growth accelerated through strategic acquisitions from the late 1990s onward, including Keefe, Bruyette & Woods in 2013 and Eaton Partners in 2016, transitioning from a Midwestern brokerage into a diversified financial services provider with a global reach.
Today, Stifel delivers a broad suite of securities-related services via its principal subsidiary, Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, alongside operations in Canada, the UK, and Europe. The company serves individual investors, corporations, municipalities, and institutional clients through three key platforms: Global Wealth Management, Institutional Group, and a diversified "Other" segment including retail banking and trust services. It also offers fixed income and equity research—ranking among the largest in the U.S.—and comprehensive investment banking, capital markets, and proprietary asset management capabilities.
Stifel has built a reputation for combining an entrepreneurial, client-centric culture with disciplined growth. It continues acquiring specialist boutiques and region-focused businesses—such as TWP, KBW, and Eaton Partners—while preserving their identities and leveraging centralized operational efficiency. A hallmark has been its equity research franchise, consistently ranking in the top 10 in StarMine Analyst Awards for over a decade, and its full-service brokerage arm recognized as the seventh-largest in the U.S. by advisor headcount.
The firm is steadily expanding its geographic and product footprint, deepening presence in EMEA and Asia-Pacific and strengthening its wealth and banking services — including Stifel Bank & Trust, which manages over $30 billion in assets. As its model evolves, Stifel blends traditional brokerage and advisory services with institutional capital markets and proprietary research, supported by technology investments to enhance client experience and advisor productivity . This integrated, growth-oriented strategy positions it as a leading independent financial services firm.