Huge recruiting bonuses for brokers may bode ill for customers. Large brokerage firms like Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley Smith Barney are offering some of the highest recruitment bonuses ever offered ? up to 330% of their previous year’s fees and commissions ? to entice reps who rank among the top fifth of their firms’ producers to come to work for them, reported Bruce Kelly in his November 15 InvestmentNews article, “Warring wirehouses add fuel to hiring fire.”