Report excerpt — SAM H1 2026
Rent or Own: Sunset Programs vs the Market
The retire-in-place decision, priced against the open market. Excerpted from The State of Advisor Movement.
What's inside
Every large firm now runs a sunset program that pays a retiring advisor for the book over a final tour of duty. The honest question is what the same book commands outside the program. This excerpt carries the report's rent-or-own framework verbatim: the in-house sunset economics, the open-market alternatives, and the third option the recruiting market never advertises.
- The rent-or-own framework, the report's central referendum
- Sunset-program economics vs open-market alternatives
- The sunset question for the advisor weighing a final decade
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The referendum underneath every transition decision
Strip the noise and an advisor weighing paths is answering one question: rent the enterprise or own it. The recruiting escalation prices the rent, up to 300-400%+ of production for a decade of tenure. The valuation market prices ownership, at a record median 11.6x EBITDA for firms sold as enterprises. Sunset programs are the purest form of rent: the firm pays for the book the advisor built, on the firm's paper, at the firm's price.
What the programs pay, and what the market pays
Retire-in-place programs, UBS's ALFA, Merrill's CTP, Edward Jones' RTP among them, typically pay a multiple of trailing production spread across a transition period, with successor selection and client experience controlled by the firm. The open-market alternatives, sell-and-stay, majority sale, minority capital, or an external sunset at a new firm, price the same book against the enterprise market. The excerpt lays the two side by side, including the fine-print variables that swing outcomes: payout multiple, successor control, and post-exit flexibility.
Common questions
What is a retire-in-place or sunset program?+
A firm-run succession arrangement in which a retiring advisor transfers the book to a successor inside the firm over a defined transition period, in exchange for a multiple of trailing production. UBS's ALFA, Merrill Lynch's CTP, and Edward Jones' RTP are the best-known examples, each with different economics, lock-ups, and successor rules.Is a sunset program better than selling my practice?+
It depends on what the same book commands outside the program. Sunset programs offer convenience and continuity at the firm's price; the open market prices the book as an enterprise, and the difference can be substantial for practices with strong recurring revenue. The framework in this excerpt puts the in-house option side by side with sell-and-stay, majority sale, and minority capital so the comparison is explicit.What should I check before signing a retire-in-place agreement?+
The payout multiple and its measurement, who selects and controls the successor, what happens to your clients if the successor relationship fails, post-exit restrictions on your flexibility, and how the program's total compares to the open-market value of the book. The fine print varies widely by firm, and it is where outcomes are decided.
Flagship research
The full picture lives in The State of Advisor Movement.
Six months of measured advisor movement: the firm-by-firm ledger, destination channels, deal economics, and the rent-or-own framework, in an interactive edition and a 41-page print edition. Both free.