Market Insights
Industry analysis, advisor profiles, and the intelligence shaping wealth management transitions. Filed by the Winthrop & Co. team.
All briefs
181 entries
- Industry AnalysisNovember 1, 20263 min readRead
What Does UBS's National Bank Charter Change for Its Advisors and Their Clients?
UBS Bank USA became a national bank on March 20, 2026. What the OCC's approval letter requires, what UBS has said it will offer and when, how its 2027 advisor compensation plan treats banking deposits, and what changes for clients today.
- GuideOctober 30, 20267 min readRead
What Can a Private-Wealth Team Offer Clients Beyond One Bank?
Six services a private-wealth team can arrange for clients beyond one institution's own shelf: credit against a portfolio, private investments, structured notes, business-owner transactions, trusts and family-office coordination, and custody and banking. For each, what it is, the risks the SEC and FINRA name, and the question to ask of any firm that offers it.
- GuideOctober 30, 202610 min readRead
What Happens If You Are Terminated While Under Investigation as a Financial Advisor?
What happens, in order, when a financial advisor is terminated during an internal review or a FINRA Rule 8210 request, and the questions to take to your own attorney.
- GuideOctober 30, 20268 min readRead
Can You Still Sell Insurance and Annuities After You Go RIA?
Your insurance license stays with you, insurer appointments and agency contracts can end, and variable annuities sit on the securities side. What an RIA advisor needs to sell fixed, indexed and variable annuities, what happens to securities trails and insurance renewals when you leave a broker-dealer, and what changes in disclosure at the RIA.
- AnalysisOctober 29, 20266 min readRead
What Wells Fargo's 2027 Pay Plan Changes for Advisors
Wells Fargo Advisors raised its core pay hurdle for the first time in five years, added a step in deferred pay for growing practices and widened its deposit incentives. Which advisors the changes reach, how the arithmetic works, and the numbers to check in your own book before January.
- Industry AnalysisOctober 29, 20263 min readRead
Which UBS teams left in the third quarter of 2026, and where did they go?
At least thirteen UBS teams and advisors were publicly reported leaving between July 1 and September 30, 2026, with at least $13.04 billion in client assets between them. Each move, in order of first report, with the destination firm, the city and the assets as reported, and how the quarter adds up.
- GuideOctober 29, 20269 min readRead
How do you read a firm's Form ADV before you join it?
A reading order for the Form ADV of a firm you are thinking of joining: the ownership schedules in Part 1A, then Items 4, 5, 8, 10, 12 and 14 of the Part 2A brochure. What each one asks the firm to disclose, what to read for, and the questions each answer should prompt. Every point is tied to the SEC form.
- GuideOctober 29, 202610 min readRead
Continuity Agreement for Financial Advisors: What It Must Say and Who Signs
What a financial advisor continuity agreement has to say: the triggers, who serves clients, authority over accounts and records, how the receiving party is paid or buys, the valuation method, duration and client notice. Plus who signs it for an RIA owner, an independent broker-dealer representative and an employee advisor, what Rule 206(4)-7, FINRA Rule 4370 and NASAA's model rule actually require, and what the SEC's never-adopted 2016 proposal would have required.
- GuideOctober 29, 20269 min readRead
Can You Take Your Clients When You Leave One RIA for Another?
Your clients' agreements are with the RIA you are leaving, so clients who follow you sign new ones with your next firm. What usually governs the way out: notice periods, non-solicitation and confidentiality clauses, state law, client-data rules and, only between member firms, the Broker Protocol, and what two 2026 disputes over RIA-to-RIA moves show.
- Industry AnalysisOctober 28, 20267 min readRead
UBS Q3 2026: Americas Flows Grew While the Advisor Count Kept Falling
UBS reported third quarter results on October 28. Its Americas wealth region took in $16.7 billion of net new assets, against outflows of $8.6 billion a year earlier, while its advisor count fell again, to 5,601. What the report shows, what management said about attrition, and what it means for an advisor at UBS.
- GuideOctober 28, 202612 min readRead
Internal Succession or Outside Sale? How Advisors Choose, and What the Price Gap Looks Like
An outside sale usually brings more cash and a faster close, and an internal succession keeps control, clients and staff together over a longer runway. The price gap in 2025 and 2026 data and what drives it, how a successor pays, what each route does to control and continuity, and a decision grid by years to exit, practice size and channel.
- GuideOctober 28, 202611 min readRead
Advisor Succession Timeline: What to Do 10, 5, 3 and 1 Years Before You Step Back
A succession plan runs on a calendar. What an advisor decides and signs at ten years, five years, three years, one year and in the last 90 days before stepping back, how the options narrow with under three years to go, how Edward Jones' and UBS's published program terms tie to age, years of service and production, and the data behind starting early.
- GuideOctober 27, 202610 min readRead
What a New Firm Checks Before It Hires You: BrokerCheck, Your U4 and the Background Check
Before a broker-dealer files your Form U4 it must investigate your character, reputation, qualifications and experience, then verify the form within 30 days and read your last Form U5 within 60. What the hiring firm sees that BrokerCheck does not, which disclosures trigger a FINRA review of the hire itself, how long a gap you can take before re-testing, and how to read your own record first.
- GuideOctober 27, 20269 min readRead
Form CRS for Advisors: What It Is, Who Files It, and What Changes When You Move
Form CRS is the two-page relationship summary every SEC-registered broker-dealer and investment adviser with retail clients must file, post and hand to clients. What goes in it, when it is delivered, why a new hire can force an amendment, what a breakaway RIA files with its application, how hybrids handle two summaries, and what the SEC has charged firms for getting wrong.
- AnalysisOctober 26, 20268 min readRead
What Does UBS's Highest Producer Grid Mean for Junior Advisors on a Team?
For 2025 UBS ended its Combined Team Grid and tied every team member's payout rate to the team's highest producer. What the Highest Producer Grid does to a junior advisor's pay, what the 2026 plan eased and the 2027 plan left unchanged, what it did to UBS teams, and what to ask before the 2027 plan takes effect.
- AnalysisOctober 26, 20268 min readRead
How Many Financial Advisors Are Next-Generation, and How Many Will Inherit a Book?
About 35% of advisors plan to retire within ten years, just over half work on teams, 86% of junior advisors in a 2026 Edward Jones survey are interested in acquiring or inheriting a practice and only 22% of RIA firms say internal successors can afford the buyout. The published numbers on advisor succession, each with its source and year.
- GuideOctober 23, 20269 min readRead
What Happens to the G2 When the Senior Partner Won't Retire?
A founder who keeps moving the retirement date leaves the next-generation advisor waiting on equity, a title and the client relationships. Why founders postpone, what the wait costs a G2, the signs that the date is drifting, what to ask for in writing, and the options if it keeps moving.
- AnalysisOctober 23, 20267 min readRead
Who Loses Ground Under Merrill's 2027 Comp Plan?
Merrill kept its payout grid for 2027, raised the bar for its growth award and moved its new money toward lending and bank deposits. Which practices that costs, which it helps, and the numbers to check in your own book before January.
- GuideOctober 23, 20268 min readRead
Do Junior Advisors Get a Recruiting Package When They Move?
A junior or next-generation advisor can get a recruiting package, on the production credited to them. What a hiring firm counts, how a package is built, what packages run by channel in 2026, and what to settle in writing before any move.
- AnalysisOctober 23, 20267 min readRead
Which Advisors Do the 2027 Wirehouse Pay Plans Reach?
All four wirehouses have published their 2027 pay plans, and none raised payout rates. What each plan changed, which production levels each one reaches, and what to check in your own numbers.
- GuideOctober 22, 20268 min readRead
Should a G2 Advisor Inherit the Book or Move Before the Sunset Is Signed?
A next-generation advisor on a wirehouse, regional or employee-channel team can still choose between inheriting the senior advisor's book and moving until the inheritor agreement is signed. What each sunset program ties up, what inheriting gives and costs, the three ways to move first, and the questions to answer before signing.
- GuideOctober 22, 202610 min readRead
How Do G2 Advisors Pay for a Buyout?
Few next-generation advisors can fund a founder buyout alone, so the money comes from somewhere else: the practice's own profits through a seller note, equity bought in stages, a firm's succession program, a bank or specialty lender, or an outside minority investor. Where each source of money comes from, and what each one costs the G2.
- GuideOctober 22, 20269 min readRead
Is Your Own Form ADV Worth It?
RIA platforms are inviting owners to close their own Form ADV and join. What your own registration keeps for you, what it takes to run in 2026, what moves to a platform if you give it up, and what to check before you file a withdrawal.
- GuideOctober 21, 20269 min readRead
What Should a G2 Advisor Negotiate Before the Founder Retires?
A next-generation advisor who wants to own the practice someday has the most leverage before the founder needs to leave. Twelve terms to get in writing first: the timeline, the valuation method, any successor discount, financing, tranches, buy-sell triggers, first-refusal rights, an outside sale, the client handoff, the non-solicit, decision rights, and what happens if the founder stays.
- GuideOctober 21, 20268 min readRead
How Long Does a Termination Stay on Your U5?
A Form U5 stays in FINRA's CRD system unless it is expunged, and an amendment keeps the original in the filing history, while a termination disclosure shows on BrokerCheck for ten years after your last association with a FINRA member firm. What each record is, who sees it, what BrokerCheck keeps permanently, what restarts if you register again, how amendments and expungement work, and what the next firm reads.
- GuideOctober 21, 20268 min readRead
Do You Need a Lawyer for a Form U5?
When a Form U5 usually calls for a lawyer, what a U5 attorney actually does (review, amendment requests, FINRA arbitration for damages or expungement, separation agreements), how to find one, what to bring to the first call, whether you can go without one, and the deadlines that apply.
- GuideOctober 20, 202612 min readRead
What Is FINRA Rule 3290?
FINRA Rule 3290 is the outside activities rule the SEC approved on September 15, 2026 to replace Rules 3270 and 3280. What it will require of registered persons and their firms, what counts as an investment-related activity, what changes from the old rules, including work at an unaffiliated RIA, and when it takes effect.
- GuideOctober 19, 202612 min readRead
Financial Advisor Succession Planning: A 2026 Guide for Practice Owners
A financial advisor succession plan is a written, dated agreement that names who takes over client relationships, how the practice is paid for, and what happens if the owner cannot work. What a plan contains, how it differs from a continuity plan, the six ways out of a practice, what to do at each distance from the exit, how succession deals are financed, and what changes for wirehouse and broker-dealer advisors, with every figure dated and sourced.
- GuideOctober 15, 202617 min readRead
How Client Accounts Move When You Change Firms: ACATS, Repapering and What Clients Sign
When an advisor changes firms, each client account moves on its own rails: brokerage accounts and IRAs through ACATS in a few business days when the custodian changes, annuities and 529 plans by a change of the firm on the contract, and some assets not at all. What moves, what each client signs, how IRAs and cost basis are handled, and where transfers stall, with the rule behind each step.
- GuideOctober 14, 20267 min readRead
RIA Custodians Compared: Schwab, Fidelity and Six More
Schwab, Fidelity, BNY Pershing, LPL Financial, Raymond James, Altruist, TradePMR and Interactive Brokers side by side: who owns each custodian, what it holds for independent advisors, what it asks of a new RIA, what it publishes about pricing and transition support, and what changed in 2025 and 2026, from Robinhood's purchase of TradePMR to Vanguard's deal for Altruist and Fidelity's minimum.
- GuideOctober 13, 20268 min readRead
What Does "Discharged" Mean on a Form U5?
Discharged is one of five reasons a firm can give on Form U5 when an advisor's registration ends. What each reason means, which ones need a written explanation, how Discharged differs from Permitted to Resign, exactly what BrokerCheck shows, how a firm amends the reason, and how hiring firms review it.
- GuideOctober 13, 202610 min readRead
Can a G2 Advisor Take Clients When Leaving the Team?
A next-generation advisor leaving a team has four things to check before any client conversation: the team agreement, the coding of each account, any inheritor agreement from a sunset program, and the Protocol status of both firms. What each one decides, what the Protocol's own team rules say, how staying at the firm differs from leaving it, and the common steps before you resign, each one a question for counsel.
- GuideOctober 12, 20263 min readRead
What Is a TAMP? How Independent Advisors Outsource Investment Management
What a TAMP, or turnkey asset management program, does for an independent advisor: model portfolios and outside managers, trading and rebalancing, reporting and billing, how it is paid, who keeps the client relationship, and when advisors build the work in-house.
- GuideOctober 12, 202612 min readRead
What Happens to a G2 Advisor When the Practice Is Sold?
When a founder sells, the next-generation advisor signs papers of their own. This guide covers what a G2 signs, how they are paid and what restricts them when an RIA is sold to a consolidator, when one practice buys another, and when a team's founder sunsets into a firm program, with the tax treatment in general terms and the options a G2 has before closing.
- GuideOctober 12, 20264 min readRead
Reg BI vs Fiduciary Duty: What Changes When an Advisor Moves
Reg BI vs fiduciary duty, for an advisor planning a move: what Regulation Best Interest requires of a broker-dealer, what an investment adviser's fiduciary duty requires, how dually registered advisors work under both, and which standard applies after a move.
- GuideOctober 12, 20264 min readRead
IBD vs RIA: What Changes for a Financial Advisor
IBD vs RIA, side by side: who you are registered with, who supervises you, the standard you are held to, how you are paid, what the firm keeps, who carries the costs, and where a hybrid RIA fits between the two.
- GuideOctober 12, 20263 min readRead
Fee-Only vs Fee-Based: What Changes When an Advisor Moves
Fee-only vs fee-based, for an advisor planning a move: what each term means, what the CFP Board's standard requires before an advisor can say fee-only, and why moving to an independent RIA does not make a practice fee-only by itself.
- GuideOctober 12, 20269 min readRead
Can a Firm Sue an Entire Team That Resigns Together?
When a whole team resigns on the same day, the firm it leaves can go to court. The claims firms bring, what raiding means, what the Protocol for Broker Recruiting protects and where it stops, why client associates and junior advisors are the flashpoint, how a temporary restraining order works alongside FINRA arbitration, and what happens after one is granted.
- GuideOctober 12, 20266 min readRead
Which Firms Are in the Broker Protocol? The 2026 List
Which firms are in the Broker Protocol in 2026, from the official signatory list. Merrill Lynch, Wells Fargo Advisors, Raymond James, LPL, Ameriprise and RBC are members; Morgan Stanley, UBS and Citigroup withdrew. Firm by firm, with dates, and what a joinder qualification is.
- GuideOctober 11, 20269 min readRead
Who Should a $1 Billion Team Talk to Before a Move?
A team managing $1 billion or more usually needs four kinds of advice before it moves: a transition consultant, a transition attorney, sometimes an investment banker, and the destination firm itself. What each one does at this size, who pays each, the order to bring them in, and what the consultant and the attorney coordinate before anyone resigns.
- GuideOctober 11, 20267 min readRead
What Happens to Advisors When Their OSJ Is Acquired?
When a broker-dealer buys the OSJ you work through, the office that supervises and supports you changes hands and new paperwork tends to follow. What LPL's Independent Advisor Network (IAN) is, how LPL's affiliation models differ, some of the deals LPL has done since 2023, and what to read before you sign anything new.
- GuideOctober 11, 20267 min readRead
Should a G2 Advisor Sign a Sunset Agreement as the Successor?
A firm sunset program usually has two signatures on it, and the successor's is the one least often priced. What the next-generation advisor pays and signs under Edward Jones' RTP, Merrill's CTP, UBS's ALFA and Northwestern Mutual's internal sales, from the firms' own filings and disclosures and from trade reporting, what happens if the successor later wants to leave, and what to ask before signing.
- GuideOctober 8, 20267 min readRead
Should You Talk to a Firm's In-House Recruiter or a Third-Party One?
An in-house recruiter works for one firm and knows it in depth. A third-party recruiter or transition consultant works outside any single firm and can compare the whole market, with staying where you are as one of the answers. What each can tell you, what to share, and the order to have the conversations.
- GuideOctober 8, 20266 min readRead
How Many Advisors Start Their Own RIA?
How many advisors start their own RIA? No regulator counts the people, so Winthrop counted the firms: 216 newly formed advisory firms based in the United States registered with the SEC between April 1 and August 31, 2026, counted from the SEC's monthly Form ADV files. What those firms look like, how the figure compares with the 1,478 new SEC registrants of 2025, and what the public data cannot show.
- AnalysisOctober 8, 20264 min readRead
How Many Advisors Left the Wirehouses in 2026?
How many financial advisors left Merrill Lynch, UBS, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo in the first half of 2026, counted two ways: producing advisors and every registration. Where the leavers went, how the counting works, and when the figures were first published.
- GuideOctober 7, 20266 min readRead
When Should a New RIA Hire Its First Employee?
When a new RIA should make its first hire, who that hire should be, whether to hire or outsource, and the compliance steps every hire sets off: the code of ethics, investment adviser representative registration on Form U4, the Form ADV Part 2B brochure supplement, and supervision. Tied to the SEC rules, NASAA guidance and Kitces Research behind each one.
- GuideOctober 7, 20265 min readRead
What Is a Breakaway Advisor?
A breakaway advisor is a financial advisor or team who leaves a wirehouse or another employee firm for the independent channels: their own RIA, an existing RIA, a supported-independence platform, or an independent broker-dealer. What each landing type means, what moves with the advisor, and how common breakaways were in the first half of 2026, from Winthrop & Co.'s State of Financial Advisor Movement report.
- GuideOctober 5, 20266 min readRead
What Insurance Does a New RIA Need?
The insurance and bonds a new RIA needs, separated: errors and omissions coverage (which no federal rule requires, though Oregon and Oklahoma do for state-registered advisers), cyber coverage, the surety bonds states tie to custody, discretion, net worth or registration itself, the ERISA fidelity bond for anyone handling retirement plan assets, and what custodians and platforms can require on top.
- GuideOctober 5, 20265 min readRead
How Do Advisors Pay for an RIA Launch?
How breakaway advisors pay for a new RIA: the owners' own capital, SBA 7(a) loans, the support programs some custodians and platforms run for advisors going independent, and minority investors. What each source asks in return, how an outside owner shows up on Form ADV, and the balances at the old firm to price with counsel before the resignation date.
- GuideOctober 2, 20265 min readRead
Should You Start Your Own RIA, Join One, or Tuck In?
Four ways into the RIA channel, compared on the questions that decide the rest: whose Form ADV it is, who serves as chief compliance officer, who holds the client contracts and the equity, who carries the cost, and what happens if you leave. Starting your own, joining an existing RIA, tucking in a practice, and supported independence, each tied to the SEC form or rule behind it.
- GuideOctober 2, 20268 min readRead
What Does Fidelity's $100 Million RIA Custody Minimum Mean for Your Firm?
Fidelity is extending its $100 million client-asset criterion to existing custody clients, and firms below it have until June 30, 2027. Who it applies to, what each of the four paths involves, and what an affected firm can do this quarter.
- GuideOctober 2, 20267 min readRead
Can You Take Your Clients When You Start Your Own RIA?
What a new RIA commonly does so a breakaway move goes cleanly: joins the Broker Protocol where the firm being left is a member, so the Protocol can cover the move, takes only the five items the Protocol permits, limits how the list is used, announces the firm within the advertising rules, repapers every client, and moves accounts through ACATS. Each step is tied to the rule or document behind it.
- GuideOctober 1, 20266 min readRead
What Is Form ADV, and What Does Each Part Ask of a New RIA?
What Form ADV is and what each part asks of a new RIA: Part 1A and the state-only Part 1B, the Part 2A brochure, the Part 2B supplement on each advisor, and Form CRS for SEC-registered firms with retail clients. How it is filed through IARD, when clients receive it, when it must be amended, and where anyone can read it. Every point is tied to the SEC form or rule behind it.
- GuideOctober 1, 20266 min readRead
Does a New RIA Need a Chief Compliance Officer?
Whether a new RIA needs a chief compliance officer, who can hold the role, and what the compliance program around it has to include: written policies and an annual review under SEC Rule 206(4)-7, a code of ethics, books and records, privacy and data security under Regulation S-P, the marketing rule, and the state model rules on continuity and succession. Plus what the SEC's 2026 examination priorities say about newly registered advisers.
- GuideOctober 1, 20268 min readRead
How Do You Build Your Own RIA From Scratch?
How to start an RIA and build it from scratch, in the order a breakaway advisor actually does it: SEC or state registration, the legal entity, licensing, a qualified custodian, the compliance program and its chief compliance officer, Form ADV, the resignation, repapering clients, and the obligations that start on day one. Every step is tied to the SEC, FINRA or NASAA rule behind it.
- GuideOctober 1, 20265 min readRead
How Do You Register an RIA?
How RIA registration works in 2026: whether a new firm registers with the SEC or its home state, the exemptions that let some smaller firms register with the SEC, what the IARD filing involves and costs, the state net worth and bond rules, how long approval takes, and when a firm has to switch regulators.
- GuideSeptember 30, 202610 min readRead
What Changes When Your Team Produces $5 Million or More?
A team producing $5 million or more is a staffed business, usually managing $700 million to well over $1 billion for high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth families. The largest recruiting and retention money in the industry is aimed at it, and the decision turns on what the team would leave behind, who comes with it, and which of five paths fits.
- GuideSeptember 29, 20266 min readRead
Merrill Lynch Payout Grid (2026): Rates, the Small-Household Rule, Awards and Deferred Pay
Merrill's cash grid pays 34% to 51% of the revenue an advisor generates, depending on the book, and household size changes the rate: nothing under $250,000 and 20% between $250,000 and $500,000 in 2026. The grid, the small-household rule, the growth and banking awards, how WealthChoice deferred pay works, how the plan has changed since 2012, and where the 2027 plan stands.
- GuideSeptember 29, 202610 min readRead
I Was Just Terminated as a Financial Advisor. What Do I Do Now?
If you were terminated, fired or let go this week, the order of the next 72 hours matters more than their speed. What to do first and what to hold off on, what your firm files about you and what BrokerCheck will show, when you can speak to clients, what happens to your loan, deferred compensation and licenses, what changes if your broker-dealer terminated you as an independent advisor, and how terminated advisors get hired again.
- GuideSeptember 29, 20268 min readRead
How J.P. Morgan Advisors Are Paid: The Grid, the Salaried Chase Channel, and What Is Deferred
J.P. Morgan pays its advisors three different ways. Its J.P. Morgan Securities financial advisors work on a grid that generally pays 40% to 50% of revenue, and its branch-based wealth advisors get a guaranteed monthly minimum salary plus a grid of about 22% to 35%, in both cases depending on the book. Remote consultants and Private Bank staff are salaried with incentive pay. The grid, the $100,000 small-account rule, awards, deferred equity and posted base salaries, mostly from the firm's own disclosures.
- GuideSeptember 28, 20267 min readRead
What Is a Small RIA? The SEC's New $1 Billion Small-Adviser Threshold
There is no single legal definition of a small RIA. On November 4, 2026 the SEC adopted a $1 billion threshold for its small entity test, replacing the $25 million line from early February 2027. Most firms under $100 million register with their state, and the average state-registered adviser has one non-clerical employee, nine clients and $19 million. What each definition means, where a small RIA registers, what it takes to start one, and how solo practices actually run.
- GuideSeptember 28, 20266 min readRead
What Is a Regional Broker-Dealer? Regional and Small Broker-Dealers, Explained for Advisors
A regional broker-dealer is a brokerage firm that grew up serving one part of the country, employs its advisors the way a wirehouse does, and in some cases has become national. How regionals compare with wirehouses and independent broker-dealers, what they pay, what FINRA counts as a small broker-dealer, and why there are fewer of them every year.
- GuideSeptember 28, 20267 min readRead
Leaving an Independent Broker-Dealer: What Moves With You, and What Your Clients Have to Sign
When an advisor leaves an independent broker-dealer, the clients can follow, but each one has to agree: FINRA does not let a registered person move accounts by negative consent. What moves by ACATS, what needs new agreements, what happens to direct-held funds and annuities, what client information you can take, the registration timing, and the transfer fees.
- GuideSeptember 28, 20266 min readRead
Form U4 vs Form U5: What Each Form Does, and How They Work Together When You Move
Form U4 registers a financial professional with a firm and carries their disclosure history; Form U5 ends that registration and records why. Who files each, the 30-day deadlines, the disclosure questions, what reaches BrokerCheck and what does not, the fees, and how the two forms hand an advisor from one firm to the next.
- GuideSeptember 25, 20265 min readRead
What Is an OSJ? The Office of Supervisory Jurisdiction, Explained for Advisors
An OSJ, an office of supervisory jurisdiction, is a FINRA-defined office where supervisory functions such as approving new accounts and supervising other branches take place, and it must have a registered principal in charge. What the rule actually says, how an OSJ differs from a branch office and a non-branch location, who can run one, how OSJs are paid, and why independent advisors join one.
- GuideSeptember 25, 20265 min readRead
What Is an Independent RIA? The Definition, the Rules, and How It Differs From Corporate and Hybrid RIAs
An independent RIA is a registered investment adviser owned by its own advisors rather than by a broker-dealer, bank or wirehouse, acting as a fiduciary and charging fees. The definition, who regulates it and at what size, how it differs from a corporate RIA and a hybrid RIA, how large the channel is, and the three ways advisors become one.
- GuideSeptember 25, 20265 min readRead
What Is an Independent Broker-Dealer? How IBDs Work, What They Pay, and Who They Fit
An independent broker-dealer affiliates financial advisors as independent contractors who own their practices, rather than employing them. What an IBD is and provides, how it differs from a wirehouse, how the payout works, the largest firms in the channel, how advisors are supervised inside one, and where an IBD sits against a hybrid or fully independent RIA.
- GuideSeptember 25, 20267 min readRead
What Is a Hybrid RIA? How It Works, and How It Differs From an Independent RIA
A hybrid RIA is an advisor-owned registered investment adviser whose advisors also stay registered with an unaffiliated broker-dealer, so fees run through the RIA and commissions through the broker-dealer. What that structure is, how the money and the supervision divide, how it differs from a corporate RIA and a fully independent RIA, who it fits, and what the rule FINRA won approval for in September will change.
- GuideSeptember 25, 20265 min readRead
What Is a Dually Registered Advisor? How Dual Registration Works
More than half of the people registered with FINRA hold two registrations: a representative registration with a broker-dealer and an investment adviser representative registration. What dual registration is, the exams behind it, the two standards of conduct a dually registered advisor works under, where these advisors sit, and what happens to each registration when you drop the other.
- AnalysisSeptember 23, 20268 min readRead
UBS Pathways and the 2027 Comp Plan: What Loyalty Pays, and What It Costs to Leave
UBS left its 2027 payout grid unchanged and put its new money into Pathways, which advances an advisor's ALFA succession payout at 100% of production, now adds 25% of trailing-12 for above-average growth, and has to be repaid if the advisor leaves. What it pays, who qualifies, and what signing it changes.
- GuideSeptember 18, 202611 min readRead
What Happens When Your Firm Raises the Payout Grid?
Morgan Stanley told its advisors this week that every revenue threshold on the payout grid moves up 10% for 2027, with the rates unchanged. If you are asking whether it reaches you, the answer is arithmetic: it reaches the advisor whose trailing revenue sits within about 10% above a band edge, and nobody else. What a grid stretch is, who it affects, what it costs at $1 million and $2 million, how to tell in five minutes, and what your options are, including the one most advisors choose, which is to stay.
- GuideSeptember 18, 20268 min readRead
How Much Does a $1 Million Practice Actually Keep?
The advisor producing $750,000 to $2.5 million is the one every grid decision is aimed at: big enough to matter, not big enough to be courted. At one wirehouse this year a $1 million producer kept 44% and a $2 million producer kept 48%, and for 2027 the thresholds behind those rates move up 10%. What that practice keeps on the grid after deferral, what the same practice nets as an owned business after real expenses, what it is worth as an asset, what the market pays to move it, and when staying is still the right call.
- Industry AnalysisSeptember 17, 202610 min readRead
Should You Leave Merrill Lynch?
Bank of America just reported record wealth revenue. Over the same six months, more producing advisors left Merrill Lynch than any other wirehouse, 570 by the registration record, and the firm's recruiting loan balance rose nearly 50%. Both are true. What they mean for one practice comes down to three numbers only the advisor can pull.
- Industry AnalysisSeptember 17, 20265 min readRead
How Many Advisors Have Left Edward Jones Through September 2026?
396 producing advisors who left Edward Jones in 2026 had re-registered at another firm by September 17. In our first-half report, more than half of the Jones leavers who re-registered joined an independent broker-dealer, counting Wells Fargo FiNet. The nine-month count, what it does and does not say, and what an Edward Jones advisor should do with it.
- GuideSeptember 15, 20265 min readRead
The 18-Month File: What to Do Two Years Before You Move
Every piece of advice an advisor gets about moving is written for the advisor who has already decided. A recruiter's job is to compress the timeline, so the reader who is two years out gets nothing. This is the opposite: the work that only pays off if you start long before you need it, and the reason almost nobody does it.
- GuideSeptember 15, 20265 min readRead
What Not to Do While You Are Still There
Part seven of the 18-Month File. Everything else in this series is work you can do openly. This is the boundary: the ordinary, well-intentioned things advisors do in the year before a move that turn a clean departure into a contested one. Almost none of them are done in bad faith, which is exactly why they happen.
- GuideSeptember 15, 20264 min readRead
What Makes a Book Portable
Part five of the 18-Month File. Retention is not a number you find out on the day. It is a property of relationships that already exists, is knowable now, and is one of the few things a long timeline can actually change. Here is the honest sorting exercise, and what to do with the households that come out badly.
- GuideSeptember 15, 20264 min readRead
The Practice Changes That Take Two Years
Part six of the 18-Month File. Revenue mix, client concentration and the operational spine of a practice are the things that most change what it is worth, and none of them can be changed quickly. At six months out they are facts you inherit. At twenty-four they are still decisions.
- GuideSeptember 15, 20264 min readRead
Reading Your Own Agreement Two Years Early
Part three of the 18-Month File. Most advisors read their employment agreement once, on the day they signed it, and never again until a lawyer is reading it with them. The provisions that will govern your exit are knowable now, and knowing them early is the difference between planning around a constraint and reacting to one.
- GuideSeptember 15, 20265 min readRead
Documenting Your Production Before You Need It
Part two of the 18-Month File. Almost every advisor reconstructs their own numbers under time pressure, from memory and whatever reports the firm still lets them pull. The reconstruction is always worse than the truth, and it is the number every conversation is then priced against. Here is what to keep, and why keeping it early is the whole point.
- GuideSeptember 15, 20264 min readRead
Building Your Note and Vesting Calendar
Part four of the 18-Month File. Two schedules decide when an advisor is economically free to do anything: the amortization on any forgivable note, and the vesting on deferred compensation. Most advisors carry a rough sense of both and are wrong by a year. Putting real dates on paper is the exercise that turns an open question into a window.
- GuideSeptember 11, 20266 min readRead
Should You Wait for Your Firm to Pay for Your CFP Before You Leave?
A lot of younger advisors quietly plan around this: stay until the firm has paid for the CFP, then go. It is a reasonable instinct and it usually answers the wrong question. The coursework is the smallest number in the decision, the 6,000 experience hours belong to the CFP Board rather than your employer, and what actually ties you to a desk is on a different page of your file entirely.
- GuideSeptember 10, 20268 min readRead
What Is in a Forgivable Promissory Note? The Clauses in Plain Language
Every forgivable loan sits on a promissory note, and the note is where the deal actually lives. Here are the clauses, one at a time, in plain language: the forgiveness schedule, the employment condition, acceleration, death and disability, set-off, collection costs, the arbitration path, and the tax consequence the note never mentions.
- GuideSeptember 10, 20266 min readRead
What Happens to a Forgivable Loan on Death, Disability, or the Sale of Your Firm
Three events can end an advisor's employment without the advisor choosing to leave, and a forgivable loan treats each one differently. Death and disability are usually addressed in the note. A sale of the firm usually is not, and the answer arrives as a second note from the acquirer. Here is what to read for in each case.
- GuideSeptember 10, 20268 min readRead
Lapsing Your Series 7 When You Go RIA: What Expires, When, and How to Keep the Door Open
Advisors who leave a broker-dealer for a fee-only RIA hear that they will lapse their Series 7. Here is what that means in FINRA's own rules: what the U5 ends, the two-year clock, what the Maintaining Qualifications Program changed in 2022, what the Series 65 or 66 covers instead, what trails and variable contracts require, and how to decide whether the door back is worth $100 a year.
- GuideSeptember 10, 202611 min readRead
How Do You Pay for CFP Certification? The Cost, the Scholarships, and the Deadlines
The CFP mark costs several thousand dollars in coursework, about a thousand for the exam, and a fee every year after. Most of it can be paid for by someone else. Here is the bill from the CFP Board's own pages, the scholarships that cover each piece with amounts and links, the deadlines in date order starting with ten that close September 30, and how to apply so you are not disqualified by your own registration.
- GuideSeptember 10, 202612 min readRead
Equity When You Join an RIA: Real Ownership or a Retention Device?
More RIAs and platforms now put equity in the offer. Whether it is ownership or a retention device is decided by three things: the instrument, the paper, and what happens on the day you leave or the day the firm is sold. Here is how to read all three, in the regulator's words and the law firms' words, with the questions to ask before you sign.
- GuideSeptember 10, 20266 min readRead
Deferred Compensation Forfeiture Claims: What Has Been Decided, and When to Call a Transition Lawyer
Advisors who leave a wirehouse forfeit unvested deferred compensation, and some have asked courts and arbitrators whether that is lawful. Here is where the question stands after the Labor Department's 2025 opinion and the Fourth Circuit's 2026 decision, what the two paths for a claim look like, what to gather, and when to bring in a transition attorney.
- GuideSeptember 9, 202610 min readRead
Succession Without a Successor: What an Advisor With No Buyer Actually Does
A third of advisors, managing about 40% of client assets, plan to retire within ten years, and more than a quarter of them are unsure of their succession plan. Most are solo or small-team owners with no junior partner, no buyer, and no document that names one. Here is the test that tells you where you stand, the first document to sign, which comes before any valuation, and the five paths that exist when there is no successor in the building.
- AnalysisSeptember 8, 20268 min readRead
Where Northwestern Mutual Advisors Actually Go When They Leave
In the first half of 2026, 198 producing advisors left Northwestern Mutual Investment Services and re-registered at another firm. More than half chose independence, about one in four made a lateral move to another insurance broker-dealer, and exactly 15 went to a wirehouse. The full destination table from registered-rep movement data, the firm-by-firm split, who arrives to replace them, and what the same practice is worth outside.
- GuideSeptember 7, 20267 min readRead
What Happens to Your Team When You Move Firms?
The client associate who has been with you eleven years knows every household by name and is the reason half your service runs without you. Nothing in the Broker Protocol covers them, your own agreement may well restrict recruiting them, and telling them too early is its own risk. This is the question that quietly stalls more moves than economics ever has.
- GuideSeptember 5, 20267 min readRead
What an Independent RIA Platform Actually Costs
Custody that costs nothing on paper, supported independence at 10 to 20% of revenue, a corporate RIA priced through the payout grid, an aggregator that charges in equity, and a standalone build for about $25,000 plus your next eighteen months. Five layers, five pricing models, and one way to compare them: the all-in at your own asset mix.
- GuideSeptember 4, 20267 min readRead
How to Choose an Independent RIA Platform: The 12 Questions
There is no best independent RIA platform, only the one whose answers to twelve questions fit the practice you actually run. The questions cover the custody agreement, the cash economics, the fee sheet, who owns your technology and data, what happens if the platform is sold, and how you leave. Most pitches answer three of them. Ask all twelve, in writing, before you sign.
- GuideSeptember 3, 20267 min readRead
Negotiating a Forgivable Loan: Which Terms Actually Move
The headline percentage is the term firms defend hardest and the one advisors spend the most time on. The terms that decide what the loan is worth over nine years, the forgiveness cadence, the carve-outs, the production thresholds, and the jurisdiction clause, are the ones that move. Here is what to ask for, in what order, and what a firm will and will not give.
- GuideSeptember 2, 20269 min readRead
What Ownership Actually Changes on Monday
Almost every argument for owning an advisory practice is an argument about the exit. That is the last day of the story. The more useful question is what ownership changes on an ordinary Monday, because the decisions an owner can make in year one are what produce the number in year twenty.
- GuideSeptember 1, 20268 min readRead
What happens to a Northwestern Mutual practice when the advisor retires?
Northwestern Mutual does not run a retire-in-place program that pays the advisor to wind down. It finances the buyer through a $1 billion succession capital program and pays the seller a share of advisory fees for three years, on terms set inside the company. Here is what the firm's own documents say, and what to price before you sign.
- AnalysisAugust 31, 20265 min readRead
Where Edward Jones Advisors Actually Go When They Leave
In the first half of 2026, 327 producing advisors left Edward Jones, and 265 of them re-registered somewhere by the end of June. The destination data tells one clear story: roughly 7 in 10 of those 265 chose an independent channel, led by LPL, Raymond James Financial Services, and Ameriprise. The full destination breakdown, from registered-rep movement data, and why the single-FA branch model keeps producing independent-practice owners.
- GuideAugust 29, 20268 min readRead
Terminated Over Something Small: The Form U5, and What a Fired Advisor Actually Does Next
Advisors are sometimes terminated over administrative matters, and the lasting effect comes from the Form U5 the firm writes, files within 30 days with a copy to the advisor, and partly publishes on BrokerCheck. What the form is, what BrokerCheck shows, how state law treats U5 defamation, how termination information is expunged, and how terminated advisors get hired anyway.
- GuideAugust 29, 20266 min readRead
Does J.P. Morgan Really Sue Every Advisor Who Leaves? What the Record Shows
The trade press has covered dozens of J.P. Morgan TRO filings against departing bank-channel advisors, including three teams sued in five days this summer. Defense lawyers call the strategy a chilling effect; the bank calls it enforcing its agreements. The measured record: who gets sued, what courts and FINRA panels actually decided, why the Chase channel has no Broker Protocol protection, and what an advisor considering a move should take from all of it.
- Industry AnalysisAugust 28, 20266 min readRead
Vanguard Buys Altruist: What the Largest Deal in Its History Means for Advisors
Vanguard is acquiring Altruist, the RIA custodian and technology platform, in an all-cash deal reported between $4 billion and $4.6 billion, the largest acquisition in Vanguard's history. Altruist stays standalone, Jason Wenk stays on, and 1,341 RIA firms now custody with a firm owned by the industry's low-cost giant. The facts, the open questions, and what advisors on every platform should actually watch.
- GuideAugust 27, 20267 min readRead
What Happens If You Leave Before Your Forgivable Loan Is Forgiven?
The unforgiven balance comes due the day you resign, usually in full and usually with interest. Here is the sequence that actually follows a departure in year three of a nine-year note: the demand letter, the arbitration path, the way a new firm typically absorbs the balance, and the two mistakes that turn a manageable payoff into a lawsuit.
- GuideAugust 26, 20267 min readRead
The First 90 Days After an Advisor Move: What Actually Happens
Almost everything written about moving firms stops at resignation day. The part advisors actually lose sleep over is what comes after: the clients who go quiet, the paperwork that comes back unsigned, the week where nothing arrives and you start doing arithmetic about your note. Here is the shape of the ninety days, phase by phase, including what normal looks like so you can tell it apart from trouble.
- GuideAugust 25, 202610 min readRead
How Forgivable Loans Are Taxed, Year by Year
A forgivable loan is not income when it lands in your account. It becomes income one slice at a time, as each year's forgiveness vests, and each slice is taxed as wages at your top rate. Here is the year-by-year picture: what the W-2 shows, why withholding usually falls short, what a state move does mid-schedule, and what a $9 million headline actually nets.
- AnalysisAugust 23, 20266 min readRead
The Channel You Do Not Own
Any growth channel a firm does not own can be repriced, narrowed, or removed by the party that owns it. Edward Jones is piloting a salaried digital advice tier, and Schwab has raised its referral minimum twice in twelve months, to $5 million by 2027. Two developments, one move, and a concentration risk that belongs in every enterprise value conversation.
- GuideAugust 21, 20266 min readRead
The Scale Premium: What Size Is Actually Worth When a Practice Sells
A $100M practice and a $1B platform do not trade at different prices. They trade at different multiples, and the spread has run 1.8x to 2.5x in every DeVoe reporting period since 2019. Where the scale premium actually comes from, the bands by size, the point where building scale stops paying, and the three ways to buy the premium without building it.
- GuideAugust 20, 20267 min readRead
Does Managing Held-Away 401(k) Accounts Create Custody?
Advising on a client's workplace retirement plan is one of the most requested things an adviser does and one of the least settled. The moment a client's username and password enters the arrangement, the question stops being about service and becomes a custody question, and several state regulators have now answered it in a way that surprised the firms relying on the technology.
- Industry AnalysisAugust 18, 20266 min readRead
What AI Actually Changes About the Economics of an Advisory Practice
Deloitte projects agentic AI will lift advisor capacity 30% to 100% by 2032, freeing a quarter to half of advisor time from operational work. None of that says what most coverage implies. AI is not replacing advisors; it is repricing capacity in an industry that is simultaneously losing a third of its workforce to retirement. What that does to practice economics, enterprise value, and who captures the gain.
- GuideAugust 17, 20266 min readRead
Buying a Financial Advisor's Book of Business: What It Costs and How It Is Structured
Every succession has two parties and the industry writes almost exclusively for one of them. Here is the deal from the buyer's side: what books actually trade for by size, why almost none of the price is paid at closing, how buyers finance the part that is, and the four things that most often kill a deal after both sides have shaken hands.
- GuideAugust 13, 20266 min readRead
The Exit, Litigated: What Firms Actually Do When Advisors Resign in 2026
The biggest breakaway in history, $129 billion out of Merrill, was met with a raiding lawsuit, a TRO request, and an arbitration fight. The TRO was denied, the arbitration push failed, and the RIA launched anyway. What departure enforcement actually looks like in 2026: who sues, what courts are granting, what the Broker Protocol still covers, and what the record says about how prepared exits fare.
- AnalysisAugust 12, 20266 min readRead
The Order Most Advisors Get Wrong: Why You Probably Should Not Go Straight to an RIA
The advice circulating among advisors is to skip the middle and launch your own RIA, usually justified by the record valuation multiples the channel commands. The multiples are real. They are also not the multiples a small firm gets. Sub-$100M practices transact at a fraction of the headline, the discount for carrying a broker-dealer affiliation is smaller than most people assume, and what actually moves the number is scale and revenue quality rather than registration. Which changes the sequence.
- Industry AnalysisAugust 11, 20268 min readRead
The Succession Crisis: 106,000 Advisors Are Retiring and Nobody Is Replacing Them
Roughly 106,000 financial advisors, controlling about 41% of industry assets, plan to retire within ten years. About 72% of trainees wash out before replacing them, 2025 ran a net outflow of producing advisors, and more than a quarter of retiring advisors are unsure of their succession plan. The math behind the industry's quietest crisis, and what it does to the value of every practice still standing.
- Industry AnalysisAugust 10, 20266 min readRead
Edward Jones' Strong Quarter Has a Missing Number
Edward Jones just filed one of the best quarters in its history: revenue up 18%, client assets at $2.6 trillion, margins expanding. The same filing shows advisor headcount fell over the quarter, and the firm's attrition rate no longer appears anywhere in it. Those two facts are not in tension. They are the same design, and understanding it is the single most useful thing an Edward Jones advisor can do this year.
- GuideAugust 3, 20268 min readRead
How to Leave a Wirehouse and Go Independent: The Actual Sequence
Most advisors research this backwards. They start by picking a destination, then discover what their agreements allow, then find out what the move costs. The order that works is the reverse: read what you signed, price what leaving forfeits, decide what independent means for your practice, and only then build a shortlist. Here is the whole sequence, what each step really takes, and the four things that go wrong.
- Industry AnalysisJuly 31, 202612 min readRead
The Megateam Migration: Why $10M+ Wirehouse Teams Keep Landing at Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo has been winning the marquee wirehouse teams: $6.3 billion from UBS, $3 billion from Merrill, $1.7 billion in Connecticut. But the employee-channel trophies are only half of it. Wells is the only wirehouse recruiting into an employee model and an independent one at the same time, and 230 advisors joined its independent channel from outside the firm in six months.
- Industry AnalysisJuly 30, 20267 min readRead
The $124 Trillion Handoff: What the Great Wealth Transfer Actually Means for Financial Advisors
Cerulli projects $124 trillion will change hands through 2048, and the first stop for $54 trillion of it is a surviving spouse, not an heir. More than 70% of heirs say they are likely to fire their parents' advisor, 41% of advisors call the transfer an existential threat, and the practices that survive it are being built now. The full map of the handoff, and what it does to the value of an advisory practice.
- GuideJuly 29, 20267 min readRead
Who Actually Owns the Firm You're Joining? A Diligence Guide to Private Equity in Wealth Management
71.8% of RIA transactions now involve private equity, and the platforms recruiting hardest are the ones PE owns. Continuation vehicles, sponsor swaps, and recapitalizations decide what your next firm looks like in year five. The ownership questions to ask before signing, and how to read the answers.
- Industry AnalysisJuly 29, 202611 min readRead
UBS Q2 2026: Record Earnings, $28B in Advisor Departures, and the Number Nobody Publishes
UBS reported second quarter results on July 29. Two days earlier, AdvisorHub counted at least 27 teams managing $28B that left UBS Wealth Management USA in the first half of the year. Both documents describe the same franchise. Reading them together is more useful than reading either one alone.
- GuideJuly 29, 20266 min readRead
The Mid-Career Advisor's Window: Why Years 10 to 20 Price Differently Than You Think
The industry writes endlessly for the retiring advisor and the rookie, and almost nothing for the advisor in the middle: fifteen years in, twenty-plus to go, producing well, quietly wondering whether the current seat compounds or caps. This post runs the mid-career math.
- GuideJuly 29, 20267 min readRead
Advisor Team Splits: Who Keeps What When Partners Want Different Futures
Half the industry now practices in teams, and the structures that made teams productive make them painful to unwind. What actually happens to clients, revenue splits, and enterprise value when partners stop wanting the same thing, and the sequence that protects everyone involved.
- GuideJuly 28, 20265 min readRead
When Your Broker-Dealer Gets Acquired: What Actually Changes for You
LPL closed its Commonwealth acquisition, Osaic folded eight firms into one, Cetera keeps acquiring, and Equitable is absorbing Stifel's independent channel. If your broker-dealer just changed hands, here is what actually changes: repapering, retention paper, payout math, tech migration, and the window in which you hold maximum leverage.
- GuideJuly 28, 20267 min readRead
The IBD Ceiling: When Your Broker-Dealer Costs More Than It Saves
Independent broker-dealers earn their keep at some production levels and quietly overcharge at others. Here is the arithmetic: what your platform actually retains, what the same services cost standalone, where the crossover sits by production level, and the four signals that a practice has outgrown its chassis.
- GuideJuly 28, 20266 min readRead
IBD or RIA in 2026: Where Departing Advisors Actually Went
The independence debate usually runs on opinion. This one runs on measurement: Winthrop's H1 2026 registered-rep data on where departing advisors actually landed, Cerulli's channel trajectories, the enterprise-value gap between revenue multiples and a record 11.6x EBITDA, and why the IBD channel keeps winning more movers than the commentary suggests.
- GuideJuly 27, 20269 min readRead
Can You Go Independent With a Small Book? What the Minimums Actually Are
Most advisors assume independence has a floor and that they are under it. The minimums are lower and stranger than that: custody has no regulatory threshold, some custodians take a firm of any size, and published production floors at independent broker-dealers run as low as $10,000 of annual GDC. Which means permission was never the question. The question is sequence, and going straight from a small book to your own RIA is usually the wrong first move.
- Industry AnalysisJuly 23, 202613 min readRead
Q2 2026 Wealth Management Earnings: Every Major Franchise Grew Double Digits
Eleven of the largest wealth franchises in America have now reported the June quarter, and every one of them grew wealth revenue by double digits. Morgan Stanley crossed $10 trillion at a 30.5% margin, Schwab gathered $120 billion, Raymond James recruited $393 million of production in nine months, LPL closed the season with $24.9 billion of recruited assets, and the recruiting commentary on the calls told a story the headline numbers only hint at.
- GuideJuly 23, 20265 min readRead
The State of Financial Advisor Movement, H1 2026: Key Findings
Winthrop & Co.'s flagship research report is live: six months of measured advisor movement, built on FINTRX registered-rep data prepared for the report. The headline findings: the two most active M&A quarters ever recorded, 15,540 producing advisors on the move, recruiting packages at record levels, and roughly three in ten wirehouse advisors who left and re-registered choosing independence.
- Industry AnalysisJuly 22, 20266 min readRead
Women Financial Advisors: The Industry's Largest Supply Gap, and the Leverage It Creates
Women hold about 18% of advisor seats while women's share of client wealth races toward 38%. The pipeline is stalled at every age band, nearly 1 in 4 RIA firms now has a female owner or executive, and firms are competing hard for a cohort that is not growing. For women advisors, that mismatch is negotiating leverage. The numbers, the plateau, and how to spend the leverage well.
- GuideJuly 22, 20268 min readRead
How Custody Actually Works: Where the Money Sits When Your Advisor Is Independent
The most common client question in every advisor transition is also the least understood: if you go independent, who actually holds my money? The answer is a qualified custodian, a segregated account, and a regulatory structure specifically designed so your advisor can manage assets without ever being able to take possession of them.
- GuideJuly 22, 20267 min readRead
Going Independent With an International Book: The Custody Myth Keeping Global Advisors Captive
Advisors with international clients stay at global brokerages out of pride in the brand on the statement. The record shows the opposite story: for a decade, the big brands have raised minimums, dropped countries, and closed international accounts by the thousands, while the custodians serving independent advisors built platforms for exactly those clients. The vault was never the brand.
- GuideJuly 20, 20268 min readRead
Independent Advisor vs. Global Brokerage: The Real Trade-offs
The independent channels have taken asset share for a decade and 71% of switching advisors say they would choose independence. Yet wirehouse advisors remain the most productive in the industry, averaging $198 million in assets each. The honest comparison is not a verdict. It is a ledger: payout against expenses, brand against autonomy, sunset packages against enterprise value.
- GuideJuly 16, 20267 min readRead
Do You Actually Own Your Book of Business?
Every advisor says 'my book.' Whether the law agrees depends entirely on your channel, your contract, and a one-page industry agreement most advisors have never read. Here is the ownership question answered honestly: what the wirehouse contract restricts, what the Protocol actually protects, what the independent firms promise in writing, and what ownership is worth when it is real.
- GuideJuly 1, 20269 min readRead
Independent RIA Platforms Explained: Custodians, Aggregators, and Supported Independence
Search for an independent RIA platform and you will get five different industries wearing one label: custodians that earn on client cash rather than fees, platform firms charging 10 to 20% of revenue, broker-dealers with corporate RIAs, PE-backed rollups offering equity for your W-2, and the build-it-yourself route at about $25,000. Here is the map, layer by layer, with the real numbers.
- AnalysisJune 24, 20266 min readRead
Why Advisors Outgrow Northwestern Mutual
Northwestern Mutual is a dominant life insurer with a fast-growing wealth business. But its most wealth-focused, highest-AUM advisors increasingly conclude they have outgrown an insurance-first model, and a steady stream of billion-dollar teams has left for independence.
- GuideJune 17, 20267 min readRead
What Percentage of Clients Follow Their Advisor to a New Firm?
Cerulli's 2025 research implies asset retention between 78% and 89% depending on the path, and advisors in Fidelity's 2023 study reported keeping about 80% of the clients they wanted to bring. The averages hide the real finding: retention depends on relationship depth, the destination channel and the 90 days of work around the move.
- Industry AnalysisJune 12, 20266 min readRead
The $34 Trillion Moving to Women Investors, and Why Practices Keep Losing It
American women are on track to control roughly $34 trillion by 2030, about 38% of US assets, up from $7.3 trillion a decade ago. Nearly $40 trillion of the great wealth transfer routes through widowed women first, 70% of them switch advisors within a year of a spouse's death, and over half of women's assets sit unmanaged. The industry's biggest growth market is also its biggest unforced error.
- GuideJune 4, 20268 min readRead
What Is a Financial Advisor Transition Deal Worth in 2026?
In the deals we work on in 2026, wirehouse recruiting packages run closer to 400% of trailing-12 revenue, and independent broker-dealer transition assistance runs 100% to 150% and above for the right teams; every package depends on the advisor and the book. The biggest independent checks are quoted in basis points on AUM. Here is what we see, how the notes are structured, and what the number quietly costs.
- AnalysisMay 28, 20269 min readRead
Is the Move to the RIA Channel Slowing Down?
RIA channel growth is not slowing. The flow of advisors out of the wirehouse model is. A look at the two-track market taking shape in 2026, and what it means for advisors weighing a move.
- GuideMay 28, 20268 min readRead
What Happens to Your Deferred Comp When You Leave? The 2026 Firm-by-Firm Guide
Merrill vests over eight years, Morgan Stanley over four to six, UBS over six, and all of them cancel unvested balances when you resign. Edward Jones hands your LP capital back at book value. And the courts spent 2024 to 2026 fighting over whether any of it is legal. The firm-by-firm map, from the firms' own filings.
- Industry AnalysisMay 7, 202612 min readRead
Wirehouse Advisor Team Moves to Wells Fargo and Rockefeller: Late April through May 2026
Seven wirehouse advisor teams managing more than $17 billion in client assets joined Wells Fargo Advisors or Rockefeller Capital Management between April 16 and May 6, 2026. Winthrop & Co. analyzes the pattern.
- GuideMay 6, 20266 min readRead
Leaving Edward Jones: Who Should You Talk to First?
Most Edward Jones advisors who leave go for the wrong reason, to the wrong place, with the wrong help. The right first call is to someone engaged to analyze the practice rather than to place it. Here is who that is, and the Edward Jones-specific questions to settle first.
- GuideMay 2, 20266 min readRead
Leaving UBS: Who Should You Talk to First?
UBS advisors evaluating a move usually start with the wrong phone call. The right first call is to someone engaged to analyze the practice rather than to place it. Here is who that is, how to vet them, and the UBS-specific questions to settle before you discuss a single destination.
- GuideApril 29, 20266 min readRead
Leaving Merrill Lynch: Who Should You Talk to First?
The first call almost every Merrill Lynch advisor makes is the wrong one. The right first call is to someone who compares the whole market for you, including the case for staying. Here is who that is, how to vet them, and what to ask before you share a single client detail.
- GuideApril 25, 20267 min readRead
When Does It Make Sense to Stay at My Wirehouse?
The recruiter conversation is built around the case for moving. The case for staying gets fewer column inches and almost no airtime in transition meetings. For some advisor profiles, staying is the right answer. Here are the seven scenarios where staying at the wirehouse beats leaving.
- AnalysisApril 23, 202620 min readRead
The $100 Billion+ Wealth Migration: A Definitive Analysis of UBS Advisor Departures
Between January 2024 and September 2026, more than 100 teams and advisors left UBS, managing more than $100 billion in client assets by publicly reported figures. A definitive analysis of the catalysts, the destinations, and the implications.
- GuideApril 21, 202614 min readRead
Going Independent as a Financial Advisor: What Are My Real Options?
'Independent' covers four meaningfully different end-states, and treating them as interchangeable is the common mistake. One pays a forgivable note that, in the independent broker-dealer deals we work on, runs 100% to 150% of trailing-12 revenue and above for the right teams, depending on the advisor and the book, and lets you keep the practice. One often pays no note at all and hands you equity instead. Here is the map, the economics of each route, and the question that narrows four choices to one.
- GuideApril 16, 202610 min readRead
How Do Forgivable Loans Actually Work for Financial Advisors?
A forgivable loan is the headline number in every recruiter conversation. Most advisors do not understand the structure, the clawback risk, the tax treatment, or the way the loan interacts with state law on resignation. Here is what the document actually says, and what the hiring firm's recruiter does not always volunteer.
- GuideApril 11, 20267 min readRead
How to Evaluate an Advisor Transition Consultant
The transition consultant you hire is the single most important decision in your move. The criteria are not the ones most advisors evaluate. Here is the actual diligence framework, the questions that surface bias, and the answers that should be in writing before you proceed.
- GuideApril 8, 20269 min readRead
Edward Jones' Retirement Transition Plan (RTP): What It Pays, and What It Costs
Edward Jones markets its Retirement Transition Plan as a turn-key succession. The real shape of the deal is laid out in four sentences of the firm's own SEC filing: a five-year agreement, two more years as an employee, a three-year non-compete, and a payout spread over four. Here is the RTP priced against every alternative.
- GuideApril 7, 20268 min readRead
The Protocol for Broker Recruiting: What It Actually Protects, What It Does Not
The Protocol for Broker Recruiting is the single most misunderstood piece of paper in advisor transitions. Advisors believe it means more than it does. Firms enforce it more aggressively than the document suggests. Here is what the Protocol actually says, what it covers, what it does not, and what changes when one or both firms are non-Protocol.
- GuideMarch 31, 20265 min readRead
Who Pays a Financial Advisor Recruiter, and What Does a Transition Consultant Do Differently?
A financial advisor recruiter is paid by the firm the advisor joins, and the advisor never pays. What separates a recruiter from a transition consultant is the work: placing you with one of the firms a recruiter represents, or finding the right answer for your practice, including staying.
- GuideMarch 25, 20267 min readRead
W-2 vs 1099 Financial Advisor: What the Employment Model Actually Changes
The same advisor, with the same book, can be a W-2 employee keeping 35 to 45 cents of every revenue dollar or a 1099 contractor on a 90% headline payout that, in the deals we work on, nets in the 80s after the broker-dealer's own charges, depending on the advisor and the book. The tax form is not paperwork. It decides who owns the clients, who pays the expenses, and who captures the enterprise value.
- GuideFebruary 19, 20267 min readRead
How Long Does a Financial Advisor Transition Actually Take?
Ask five people how long an advisor transition takes and you will get answers from six weeks to a year. All of them are right, because a transition is five clocks running at once. Here is each clock, what starts it, what stops it, and the sourced numbers behind a realistic timeline.
- AnalysisFebruary 12, 20262 min readRead
The Illusion of Safety: Recreating the Institutional Feel in a Boutique RIA Model
Elite wealth management advisors are discovering that true institutional strength and security can be achieved through independent RIA models rather than traditional wirehouses. The boutique RIA approach offers multi-custodial optionality and supported independence while maintaining the institutional credibility clients expect.
- AnalysisFebruary 3, 20265 min readRead
UBS Advisor Departures 2026: The Biggest Moves and What They Signal
More than 130 UBS advisors controlling over $50B in assets departed in 2025, signaling strategic repositioning rather than reactive attrition. Senior teams moved to firms like RBC, Wells Fargo, and independent platforms as they reassessed long-term business durability.
- AnalysisFebruary 2, 20263 min readRead
Financial Advisor Industry Outlook 2026: Signal vs. Noise
The financial advisor industry in 2026 is characterized by significant movement across Independent Broker-Dealers and the RIA space, with advisors increasingly choosing between substantial upfront compensation packages and long-term equity ownership in their practices.
- Industry RoundupJanuary 29, 20262 min readRead
December 2025 RIA and Broker-Dealer Roundup: Advisor Moves
December 2025 shows wirehouse recruiting momentum, ongoing consolidation among planning-led firms, and continued independent launches by tax-focused teams seeking greater control and customization.
- AnalysisJanuary 13, 20267 min readRead
Edward Jones Partnership Units: Real Equity or Retention Tool?
Edward Jones offers limited partnership interests to its associates as a share in the firm's capital and profits. The firm's own filings show what that buys: no vote, no sale without the managing partner's consent, and capital returned at the price paid on the firm's schedule.
- AnalysisDecember 10, 20255 min readRead
Why Advisors Outgrow Edward Jones
Financial advisors at Edward Jones often reach a turning point where platform limitations (restricted product access, lower compensation and limited equity) become barriers to growth as their practices scale.
- GuideDecember 10, 20255 min readRead
UBS ALFA Program: What It Pays, What It Locks, and Should You Sign?
UBS's Aspiring Legacy Financial Advisor program pays retiring advisors up to 300% of eligible production to sunset inside the firm. The number is real. So is the structure underneath it: a multi-year commitment, a book that never leaves UBS, and an open market you are agreeing not to test. This post prices the decision.
- GuideDecember 10, 20258 min readRead
The Ultimate Financial Advisor Transition Checklist
A comprehensive six-phase framework for financial advisors considering a career move, covering self-assessment through the first 90 days at a new firm, with guidance on compensation negotiation, client retention, and regulatory compliance.
- GuideDecember 10, 20255 min readRead
Retirement-in-Place Programs vs. Independent Transitions: Maximizing Your Lifetime Earnings and Legacy
Every major firm now offers a sunset program: Merrill's CTP, Edward Jones' RTP, UBS's ALFA, each paying roughly two to three times revenue, depending on the book, to retire in place. The open market paid a record 11.6 times EBITDA for the median RIA in 2025. The sunset payment and the sale price come from two different transactions, and the gap between them is most advisors' largest unexamined financial decision.
- GuideDecember 10, 20254 min readRead
The Reality of Independence: What Edward Jones Advisors Must Know
Independence is the natural next step for many Edward Jones advisors who have outgrown the box. Here's what the actual transition options look like, what trade-offs each one carries, and which path tends to fit which kind of practice.
- GuideDecember 10, 20255 min readRead
Merrill Lynch's Client Transition Program (CTP): What It Pays, and Should You Sign?
Merrill's Client Transition Program pays retiring advisors as much as 325% of trailing revenue to sunset inside the firm, with successors repaying most of it through reduced payouts for up to eight years. It is the richest headline in the sunset market, and one advisor who broke its terms was ordered to repay $1.4 million. This post prices the whole deal.
- AnalysisDecember 10, 20256 min readRead
Key Takeaways of the Changes to the UBS Compensation Plan
On November 21st, UBS Wealth Management made significant changes to their advisor compensation plan. Here are the key takeaways advisors should be aware of, including the end of the Combined Team Grid and changes to bonus structures.
- GuideDecember 10, 20257 min readRead
How to Read Your Compensation Grid Like a Bidding Sheet
Every September, the major firms publish next year's compensation plans, and most advisors read theirs the wrong way: as a payout table. Read it instead as a bidding sheet, a public price list for which advisors the firm will pay to keep, which it tolerates, and which it is managing out.
- Case StudyDecember 10, 20251 min readRead
Case Study: Unraveling the Exodus, Why Billion-Dollar Teams Are Leaving Merrill Lynch
High-performing advisor teams are departing Merrill Lynch due to compensation changes, desire for autonomy, and misalignment with corporate direction, with many drawn to independent firms offering greater flexibility and advanced technology.
- Case StudyDecember 10, 20251 min readRead
Case Study: Awakening to Reality, When Loyalty to My Firm Outweighed Its Loyalty to Me
Edward Jones faces increasing advisor departures as experienced wealth managers seek independence, driven by dissatisfaction with compensation structures and cultural shifts toward compliance-focused approaches.
- Industry AnalysisApril 10, 20252 min readRead
Why UBS Advisors Are Leading the Industry's Largest Exodus in 2025
UBS Financial Services tops the AdvisorHub Recruiting Wire Scoreboard for net advisor-managed asset losses in 2025, shedding $37.4 billion. This is what the data actually says, why it's happening, and where those advisors are going.
- AnalysisApril 1, 20254 min readRead
LPL Buys Commonwealth for $2.7 Billion: The Most Beloved Firm in the Independent Channel Changes Hands
LPL Financial announced a definitive agreement to acquire Commonwealth Financial Network: roughly 2,900 advisors, $285 billion in assets, and eleven consecutive J.D. Power #1 rankings for independent advisor satisfaction. The largest firm in the channel just bought the best-loved one. What that means for the advisors who chose Commonwealth precisely because it was not the largest.
- GuideOctober 15, 202410 min readRead
What Is Your Book Actually Worth? A Practical Guide to Advisor Practice Valuation
Advisors quote rules of thumb. Buyers run models. The gap between those two habits is where practices get mispriced, deals get lost, and successions fail. Here is how advisory practices are actually valued in today's market: the multiples, what moves them, and why the same book can be worth two very different numbers depending on who is buying.
- AnalysisMay 14, 20244 min readRead
Advisor Headcount Is Flat, and Everyone Is Fighting Over the Same Teams
The industry added a rounding error of net new advisors, nearly three-quarters of rookies wash out, and 109,093 advisors controlling 41.5% of assets plan to retire within a decade. Meanwhile experienced advisors keep changing firms and the wirehouses are recruiting again. The math behind the recruiting war is demographic, and it is not close to over.
- AnalysisDecember 14, 20234 min readRead
Osaic Buys Lincoln Financial's Wealth Business: 1,450 Advisors Join the Biggest Rollup in the Independent Channel
Osaic, the firm consolidating the eight Advisor Group broker-dealers into one, announced a definitive agreement to acquire Lincoln Financial's wealth management business: roughly 1,450 advisors and $108 billion in assets. For advisors at Lincoln, Royal Alliance, SagePoint, FSC, Woodbury, Triad, Securities America, American Portfolios, and Infinex, the same playbook now applies. Here is what it says.
- AnalysisSeptember 28, 20234 min readRead
The Schwab-TD Ameritrade Conversion Is Done. Here Is What It Means for the RIA Channel
Over Labor Day weekend, Schwab moved more than 7,000 RIA firms off the TD Ameritrade platform in a conversion of about $1.3 trillion in total assets, retail clients included, the largest conversion in industry history. The weekend went smoothly, and the weeks after were an adjustment period. The structural story, custody consolidation, touches every advisor who will ever consider independence.
- AnalysisJune 8, 20235 min readRead
What the First Republic Collapse Teaches Advisors About Platform Risk
First Republic built the most admired recruiting machine in wealth management, then failed in eight weeks. More than 40% of its advisors left before JPMorgan's name went on the door. The episode is the clearest lesson this industry has ever produced about a risk most advisors never price: the platform itself.
- AnalysisSeptember 8, 20226 min readRead
The G2 Problem: The Succession Crisis Hiding Inside Advisory Firms
Thirty-seven percent of advisors, controlling $10.4 trillion, expect to retire within a decade, and a quarter of them have no succession plan. Meanwhile the valuations that made founders wealthy have priced their own successors out of buying the firm. The industry's quietest problem is about to become its loudest.
- AnalysisJuly 6, 20224 min readRead
Edward Jones' Largest Advisor Just Left: What Jennifer Marcontell's $1.7B Move Means
Jennifer Marcontell was not an average Edward Jones advisor. She was, by assets, the firm's biggest. On July 1 she moved her $1.7 billion Baytown, Texas practice and her entire team to an independent practice with Ameriprise. When the top name on the firm's leaderboard walks, every advisor on that leaderboard is allowed to ask why.
- GuideApril 19, 20226 min readRead
What Happens to Your Deferred Compensation When You Leave Your Firm?
Every wirehouse advisor carries a deferred compensation balance, and most have never calculated what resigning actually forfeits. Here is how the plans work, what the Wells Fargo settlement and the Morgan Stanley lawsuit mean for the forfeiture question, and how to think about the number before a recruiter does it for you.
- AnalysisFebruary 8, 20225 min readRead
2021 Shattered Every RIA M&A Record. Here Is What It Means for Your Practice Value
242 deals in the DeVoe count, 307 in Echelon's, an average seller above $1 billion, and private equity in two-thirds of everything. 2021 was the year advisory practices repriced as enterprises. Whether or not you ever sell, the record year changed what your practice is worth and who is bidding for it.
- GuideDecember 2, 20215 min readRead
Timing an Advisor Transition: Why January Is the Industry's Moving Season
Every December, advisors tell themselves the same thing: after the new year. Some of that is procrastination. Some of it is real financial mechanics. Here is how deferred compensation cycles, production years, and deal timing actually interact, and how to decide when your window opens.
- GuideSeptember 14, 20219 min readRead
Can My Firm Sue Me for Leaving? Garden Leave, TROs, and Non-Solicits Explained
Four years after Morgan Stanley, UBS, and Citi walked out of the Broker Protocol, the fear of being sued still keeps advisors at firms they have outgrown. Here is what the legal landscape actually looks like: what a TRO is, what garden leave means, what courts have actually done, and why the exit choreography matters more than the exit itself.
- AnalysisJune 3, 20215 min readRead
Merrill Lynch Ends Cold Calling: What the Trainee Overhaul Really Signals
Merrill Lynch just banned cold calling firmwide and rebuilt its trainee program around Bank of America referrals. The headline is about prospecting. The real story is about where the next generation of wirehouse advisors will come from, and who will own the client relationship they inherit.
- GuideApril 16, 20192 min readRead
How Winthrop & Co. Is Paid: Never by the Advisor
The firm pays Winthrop & Co., and the advisor never pays. Why we built the firm this way, how we keep the advice on the advisor's side, and the questions to ask anyone who offers to help you move.