Do Junior Advisors Get a Recruiting Package When They Move?

The short answer: Yes, on the production credited to you. A hiring firm prices a package on your own trailing-12 revenue, so accounts still coded to the senior advisor, or inherited and still under an inheritor agreement, generally do not count. On your own production, wirehouse packages run closer to 400% of trailing-12, depending on your book of business. Independent broker-dealer transition assistance runs 100% to 150% of trailing-12 and above for the right teams, depending on the book. For a junior advisor, the number usually turns on how the team's rep codes are split, so get the split in writing before any move is on the table.

Teams are common, which is why this question comes up so often. Cerulli's December 2025 research found 51% of all advisors working in a team structure, with the wirehouse and hybrid RIA channels most likely to use multi-advisor teams, at 64%. On a team, a junior advisor's revenue often sits inside a number that carries other names, and a hiring firm has to decide how much of it is yours. This guide is for the G2 or junior advisor on a wirehouse, regional or independent broker-dealer team who is asking whether a firm would pay for a move, and on what.

What is a junior advisor's package priced on?

A package is priced on revenue, and the revenue that counts is the production credited to you across the trailing twelve months. A hiring firm asks for production reports and reads them by representative code. Revenue coded to you counts. Revenue coded to a senior advisor generally does not, even when you service those households every day, and firms differ on the cases in between.

Two things create the cases in between. The first is the joint code. FINRA's Regulatory Notice 22-23, writing about succession plans, describes a joint representative, or joint production, code, a code used to calculate the commissions payable to a retiring and a receiving representative who service the same accounts. A hiring firm that sees a joint code sees two names on one stream of revenue, and without a documented split it may count only your share, or none of it. The second is the inherited account. In some sunset programs an inheriting advisor receives reduced credit on the inherited accounts for a set period, so the revenue can appear on your production report and still sit outside what a hiring firm will treat as yours.

Firms differ on every row, and the row that fits you is the first thing to learn.

How is a recruiting package built?

Packages are built from the same parts at most hiring firms, and the parts matter as much as the headline.

An upfront forgivable loan. The upfront part of the package is usually paid as a promissory note that the firm forgives in slices over a term of years while you stay. The unforgiven balance is generally repayable if you leave early, under the note's own terms. How forgivable loans actually work covers the note clause by clause, and your tax adviser can tell you how each forgiven slice is treated for you.

Back-end awards. Many packages add awards paid later and tied to growth, to assets, or to both. They are earned over the term and depend on targets the hiring firm sets, so read the targets against your own client list before you rely on the total.

The commitment term. Notes typically run 7 to 10 years, longer for the largest packages, depending on your book of business. The term is the length of time the firm expects your production to stay, and it is worth reading against the years you expect to work.

The rest of the picture. Deferred compensation you would leave behind at your current firm is part of the same conversation, and the payout grid you would move to decides what each dollar of production pays after the check. How to read your compensation grid like a bidding sheet shows how to read the second one.

What do hiring firms weigh for a junior advisor?

Hiring firms differ, and the list below is general.

Credited production. The trailing-12 revenue coded to you, which the table above sorts into what counts and what does not.

The mix of the business. Firms look at how much of the revenue is advisory and how much is transactional, because the mix shapes how steady the revenue is likely to stay.

Growth you generated. New households and assets you brought in, and when, tell a hiring firm more about your future than revenue you inherited.

Likely client follow-through. A firm will ask which relationships you opened, which you inherited and which households call you first. Clients choose for themselves where they go, and FINRA's Regulatory Notice 22-23 notes that customers may choose to move part or all of their assets to another representative or firm, so a firm weighs follow-through as a likelihood.

Team context. A firm that wants a whole team prices the team's revenue, and a firm that wants one advisor prices that advisor's. For teams that move as one unit, see when your team produces $5 million or more.

Firm thresholds. Firms set their own production thresholds for packages, and an advisor whose credited revenue is small may be offered another kind of arrangement. A conversation about your numbers shows which one applies.

What do packages run by channel in 2026?

These are channel figures from the deals we work on in 2026. Wirehouse packages run closer to 400% of trailing-12 revenue, depending on your book of business. Regional packages run roughly 300% to 400% of trailing-12 revenue, with some firms paying more, depending on your book of business. Independent broker-dealer transition assistance runs 100% to 150% and above for the right teams, depending on your book of business.

Payouts belong in the comparison too. Independent broker-dealer headline payouts can reach 95% and above, and net in the 80s after the broker-dealer's charges, with what you keep depending on your book of business, the broker-dealer, the business mix and advisory size.

The dollar amount for any advisor follows the revenue credited to that advisor, which is why the table of credited revenue near the top matters more than any percentage. The specific answer, and the best deal available for your production, comes from a conversation: it draws on Winthrop's relationships and its record of past deals, and on the differences in culture, technology, support and service that no table shows. Our free 2026 Advisor Transition Deal Benchmarks collects the ranges by channel and the structures behind them.

Should you move alone or with the team?

Moving alone prices your credited production and moving with the team prices the team's, and the choice sits next to any sunset program on your team. Our guide for the G2 deciding between inheriting the book and moving first sets out the three routes and what each sunset program ties up.

What should you settle first?

A package follows the paperwork, so the paperwork comes first. Have your own counsel read every agreement before you act, and bring tax questions to your own tax adviser.

1. The split of credit, in writing. Ask how each account on your production report is coded and what the team agreement says about credit. Code changes go through the firm's own process, and your own counsel reads the team agreement first. FINRA's Regulatory Notice 22-23 records disciplinary actions against representatives who inaccurately altered or falsified representative codes on trades to receive a higher commission.
2. What you would owe back. At a hiring firm, that is the unforgiven balance of a note if you leave early, as the note sets out. At your current firm, it can include any obligation under an inheritor or team agreement, and any unvested deferred compensation you would forfeit, under the plan's own terms.
3. The non-solicit. Ask your own counsel what it covers, how long it runs and when it ends. Clients decide for themselves, and how you may contact them depends on your agreements and state law. Our guide to taking clients when you leave a team works through what decides each kind of account.

A junior advisor who has these three answers, and who has asked each hiring firm how it would count the revenue in writing, can price a move on real numbers, because a percentage applies only to the revenue that firm credits to you. Whether a package fits your situation depends on your book of business, the agreements you have signed and the firms on both ends, and the way to find out is a confidential conversation about your production. Winthrop's financial advisor transition services cover the whole path. The firm pays Winthrop & Co., and the advisor never pays. Request an Introduction.