Can You Take Your Clients When You Leave One RIA for Another?

The short answer: Clients decide where they go. Their advisory agreements are with the RIA you are leaving, so a client who follows you ends that agreement and signs a new one with your next firm; no rule moves a client for you. How and when you may contact them is set by the papers you signed (notice periods, non-solicitation, confidentiality and sometimes non-acceptance clauses), by the governing state's law and, only between member firms, by the Broker Protocol. Two 2026 disputes over RIA-to-RIA moves show those terms in play. What your own agreements allow is a question for your own securities or employment attorney, and the business side of the move is a conversation with Winthrop.

In a February 2026 release, Cerulli Associates reported that 88% of independent RIAs say they are very likely to remain with their current firm over the next 12 months, and that 97% would move to another independent RIA if they switched. A move from one RIA to another runs on different paperwork from a move out of a broker-dealer.

Who are your clients' agreements with?

With the firm. The Advisers Act addresses its contract rules to the registered investment adviser, and the individual advisor is a supervised person of that firm: a partner, officer, employee or other person who gives advice on its behalf under its supervision. That covers a W-2 employee, a partner and a 1099 contractor working under the firm's Form ADV alike.

So a client who follows a departing advisor does two separate things: ends the agreement with the old firm under its termination terms, and signs a new agreement with the next firm. The Act's rule against assigning a contract without the client's consent is about the firm transferring its own contracts, as in a sale; a client following an advisor is a new contract. If the old firm bills in advance, its brochure explains how a prepaid fee is refunded when the agreement ends mid-period. Should you start your own RIA, join one, or tuck in covers the same point from the joining side.

What usually governs the way out

The terms are in the agreement you signed to join: an employment agreement, a partnership or operating agreement if you hold equity, or an independent-contractor or affiliation agreement. Each is read under the law of a particular state.

Where the dispute is heard also depends on the agreement. FINRA's arbitration code reaches disputes among FINRA members and their associated persons; the disputes between RIAs described below were in court.

What two 2026 disputes over RIA-to-RIA moves show

Edelman Financial Engines and Prime Capital. Edelman sued in federal court in Delaware in November 2025, alleging that Prime Capital Investment Advisors recruited a dozen of its planners with clients holding about $1.5 billion, as InvestmentNews reported. On March 12, 2026, the court granted a temporary restraining order in part: it barred two planners from misusing Edelman's confidential information and from soliciting their former Edelman clients, and it declined to enforce the non-acceptance provisions, writing that enforcing them "could deprive consumers of their preferred financial planner." On May 21, after a hearing, it turned that order into a preliminary injunction and this time enforced the non-acceptance provisions against the same two planners, pointing to the firm's investment in the leads that built their books and to its expectation that clients who wanted to follow them had already moved. On July 8, ruling on a third planner, it again barred solicitation but declined the non-acceptance terms, because that planner's clients may not yet have had the chance to follow. In August the firms agreed to a stipulated permanent injunction for planners moving from Edelman to Prime: written notice at least 14 business days before the last day, non-solicitation and confidentiality during notice, a joint notice to clients, and a 12-month bar on soliciting former Edelman clients, with exemptions for family members and for planners whose office, clients and tax residence were all in California. The case was dismissed in September. One lawyer quoted in the coverage noted the injunction applies only to those two firms.

Wealth Enhancement Group. In October 2026, Wealth Enhancement sued a former advisor who joined RFG Advisory, alleging his agreement required 30 days' notice of resignation, barred using confidential information for his own benefit and barred soliciting clients for two years after he left, and that he resigned without notice and solicited clients. His attorney said the restriction sought would conflict with industry rules that protect client choice, and RFG said clients are the ultimate decision-makers. No ruling had been reported when WealthManagement.com covered it.

Neither case sets a rule for anyone else. Both show that the outcome turns on the specific agreement, the state and the conduct, which is why the agreement gets read before anyone resigns. Can my firm sue me for leaving covers restraining orders, garden leave and recent rulings in more depth.

Does the Broker Protocol apply between RIAs?

Only when both firms are signatories, subject to any qualifications in a firm's joinder, and many RIAs have signed. J.S. Held keeps the official member list and updates it weekly. Between members, the Protocol limits what a departing representative takes to five items for the clients they served: name, address, phone number, email address and account title. The new firm may use them only for that representative's solicitation, and the solicitation starts after the move. The Protocol's text speaks of registered representatives, and how it reaches an adviser representative with no FINRA registration is a question for counsel. The Protocol for Broker Recruiting explained walks through it, and the Broker Protocol firms list shows how to check membership.

The Protocol leaves some agreements in force. Its own text keeps team agreements and several other contracts in force, and a firm may write an agreement that says its terms apply regardless of the Protocol. In August 2025 the Fourth Circuit, applying Virginia law at the preliminary-injunction stage, held that such a clause controlled whether or not the former firm was a member, in a case about employees who left a Richmond wealth management firm to start their own.

What about client data?

Client information is regulated whichever way the move goes. For an SEC-registered adviser, Regulation S-P treats a list of the firm's customers, and the fact that someone is a customer, as nonpublic personal information. The rule's exceptions include consent, fraud prevention, legal compliance and a sale or merger of the business, and none covers a representative who leaves: the SEC proposed one in 2008 and never adopted it. In 2011 the SEC penalized two brokerage executives after customer information from more than 16,000 accounts went to a departing executive's new firm without customers getting notice and a chance to opt out, and the firm's compliance chief over its safeguards. What not to do while you are still there covers the line on client data.

State law decides a great deal

Restrictive covenants are mostly a matter of state law, and the states differ. California voids contracts that restrain anyone from a lawful profession, which its courts have applied to customer non-solicitation clauses as well as non-competes. The statute's exceptions cover selling a business's goodwill and a partner leaving a partnership, and trade-secret law still protects confidential client information. Minnesota voids non-competes in agreements signed from July 1, 2023, and its ban does not reach non-solicitation agreements. Washington's law voids non-competes from June 30, 2027, whenever they were signed, caps customer non-solicitation at 18 months and counts a clause barring acceptance of a customer's business as a non-compete. Florida went the other way in 2025, with a law that makes qualifying non-compete and garden-leave agreements easier to enforce. The FTC's nationwide non-compete rule is not in effect.

Where FINRA rules fit

FINRA Rule 2140 bars FINRA member firms and their associated persons from interfering with a customer's request to transfer an account, where the account carries no lien or other bona fide claim, when the customer's registered representative changes jobs. It binds FINRA members, so in a move between two RIAs that are not members it reaches only part of the picture, such as a custodian that is a member broker-dealer. For a dually registered advisor's brokerage accounts, FINRA Regulatory Notice 19-10 adds guidance on how firms tell customers about a departing representative.

What the new firm does

The new RIA registers you as its investment adviser representative where required. An SEC-registered RIA delivers its brochure, plus its Form CRS for retail clients, before or at the time each client signs its agreement; your brochure supplement goes out before or when you begin advising that client. When the custodian changes, accounts move through the ACATS transfer system; when both firms use the same custodian or platform, a client may only need to change the adviser of record on the existing account and sign a new limited power of attorney. How client accounts move when you change firms covers the transfer itself.

Which clients follow, on what timeline and under which agreements, depends on your book of business, the papers you signed and the firm you are joining. Have your own securities or employment attorney read your agreements before you give notice. The business side, from what your production would command elsewhere to how culture, technology, support and service differ between the firms that fit, is a confidential conversation that draws on Winthrop's relationships and its record of past deals. The firm pays Winthrop & Co., and the advisor never pays. Request an Introduction.