While Wall Street firms refused to take a chance on Brian Kroneberger when he was just a year out of college, Ferris, Baker Watts Inc. gave him a job.

Now, 17 years later, Kroneberger is one of the Baltimore-rooted brokerage firm's star managers, overseeing $900 million in client assets under the Dyer Kroneberger Group in Hunt Valley.

So when the 40-year-old Baltimore native learned yesterday that Ferris agreed to sell itself to Minneapolis-based RBC Dain Rauscher Inc., Kroneberger had mixed feelings.

"I'm a Baltimore kid. This is a Baltimore firm," said Kroneberger, who also hosts a financial show on WBAL Radio. "Long-term, it would have been difficult for Ferris, Baker Watts to exist in the next 10 years, and it's better to be proactive than reactive. Personally, it's a sad day. But it's a positive day going forward because of the ability to have [additional] benefits for our clients."

Other Ferris brokers expressed similar emotions as they grappled with some uncertainty ahead. Top brokers are expected to be courted by Dain Rauscher and competing firms as the deal unfolds and changes are made at Ferris.

Executives with Royal Bank of Canada, which owns Dain Rauscher, said it is too early to determine potential job reductions and management changes as the two firms merge.

But the Ferris, Baker Watts name eventually will disappear and be folded into Dain Rauscher, a process that will take some time.

Ferris has more than 900 employees, including 461 in Maryland, and operates in 10 states and in the District of Columbia. As shareholders of the employee-owned firm, workers will have a say in the approval process.

Dain Rauscher executives met with Ferris employees yesterday to outline the transaction. Though the companies did not disclose the firm's sale price, employees will be paid for their shares in Ferris, Baker Watts Inc. as well as their outstanding options to buy shares.

John Taft, Dain Rauscher's chief executive, said yesterday that the success of the transaction will "ultimately be determined by our ability to retain Ferris, Baker Watts customers and Ferris, Baker Watts advisers."

Taft also said Dain Rauscher will retain some aspects of Ferris' operations in Baltimore.

"What they are and what they aren't is too early to tell." he said, noting that they want to take time to evaluate the firm's needs. "We want to do it right."

Ira Gansler - a managing director who joined Ferris in 1970 when the firm was Baker, Watts - said a Dain Rauscher executive explained that the company lost just four investment advisers out of 150 when it acquired a smaller firm last year. The departing advisers did not bring much money into the firm, Gansler said.

"They made it clear that retention is what they're looking for and our cultures are very, very similar," said Gansler, who is based in Ferris' Baltimore office.

Still, there will be other employment opportunities for top Ferris brokers as competitors try to lure them away, said Jeff Greene, vice president at executive recruiting firm Battalia Winston International in New York.

Dain Rauscher executives did not detail how they plan to retain Ferris employees, but Greene said it is common for financial services firms to offer incentives, such as cash bonuses, to ensure employees are not snapped up by competitors.

Citigroup Inc., for example, offered top brokers at Legg Mason cash and stock worth at least $1 million to join its Smith Barney brokerage. Legg Mason swapped its brokerage unit for Citigroup's money management business in 2005.

"Remember now with brokerages, it's really about the relationships," said Greene, who specializes in financial services recruiting. "Over a period of time, if you develop a special affinity with a client and vice versa, then the chances that you might move depends on your relationship with that particular broker."

Scott Shulman, who oversees Ferris' brokers from his Rockville office, said he does not expect top performers to leave for competitors.

In the meantime, Ferris managers said they do not expect day-to-day interactions with clients to change.

"The good news about this is this allows us to continue relationships with existing clients, just like we have in the past 100 years," Shulman said.

Kroneberger said he heard from several clients yesterday, whose main concern was whether he would continue to manage their accounts.

"I told them ... that it's tough in the brokerage business to stay as small as we were," he said. "Either you have to grow or you probably have to be acquired."

hanah.cho@baltsun.com

Staff writer Paul Adams contributed to this article.