How Many Financial Advisors Are Next-Generation, and How Many Will Inherit a Book?

The short answer: About a third of advisors plan to retire within ten years: Cerulli puts it at approximately 35% of advisors, who manage 40% of industry assets. Just over half of advisors now work on teams, and a Cerulli analyst says rookies placed in larger advisor teams with long-term career development plans will be best positioned to create natural retirement and business succession paths. In Edward Jones' 2026 research, 86% of junior advisors were interested in acquiring or inheriting a practice, and among senior advisors planning to transition within five years, only 38% had a specific successor in mind. And DeVoe found only 22% of firms say internal successors can afford to buy out the founder, down from 38% four years earlier.

The releases read for this page report no under-40 share of the advisor population. They cover retirement plans, team structure, interest in inheriting a practice and the ability to pay for one, and each figure below carries its source and year, because each comes from a different release and sample.

Each row comes from its own release and sample, so the rows are not meant to be combined. Kestra's respondents are advisors at independent broker-dealers and RIAs in practices with $750,000 or more in revenue, and every owner among them was planning an internal succession. The Kestra percentages are of owners planning to retire within ten years, a subset of its 180 owners among 269 respondents whose size the report does not give. The Edward Jones sample is 233 advisors, with no count given for its junior or senior groups.

How many advisors are about to retire?

Cerulli's August 2026 release says approximately 35% of all financial advisors, who manage 40% of industry assets, plan to retire within the next 10 years, and more than one-quarter of them express uncertainty about their succession plans. Earlier Cerulli releases carry their own figures. The January 2025 release on U.S. Advisor Metrics 2024 counted 105,887 advisors planning to retire over the decade, 37.4% of headcount and 41.4% of assets, and found 26% of them unsure of their plans, rising to 30% among advisors affiliated with independent RIA firms. The January 2024 release on U.S. Advisor Metrics 2023 counted 109,093, or 37.5% of headcount and 41.5% of assets. Winthrop's longer read of the retirement wave is in the succession crisis post.

Where does the next generation sit?

Cerulli's team figures cover all advisors and give no age split. Its December 2025 release on U.S. Advisor Metrics 2025 says 51% of all advisors operate in a team structure, and 64% of advisors in the wirehouse and hybrid RIA channels work in multi-advisor teams, the channels most likely to do so. Team-based practices held more than three times the average assets of solo practices, and their annual organic growth was more than double, at $20.3 million versus $8 million.

Cerulli ties teams to succession directly. In the August 2026 release, research analyst Olivia Morgan said rookie advisors placed in larger advisor teams with long-term career development plans will be best positioned to create natural retirement and business succession paths. That is Cerulli's view of where succession can happen, and the surveys below show how often it is planned.

The Kestra Holdings study gives one picture of the people involved. Its 89 next-generation advisors, defined by the study as advisors identified as successors or potential successors in their current practice, averaged 44 years old with 17 years as advisors, an average that describes that sample alone.

Who wants to inherit a book, and who has a successor?

Interest is high. In research Edward Jones released with Morning Consult on September 14, 2026, 86% of junior financial advisors were interested in acquiring or inheriting an established practice. Juniors said training resources (49%), clear firm guidance and support (46%) and access to a structured matching and transition program (43%) would make them more likely to acquire one. The survey reached a national sample of 233 advisors from July 14 to 18, 2026, and the release does not define junior or senior by age or give the size of those groups. Cerulli's January 2025 release, from a different survey, found 48% of all advisors interested in acquiring a practice, with 19% actively searching.

Fewer senior advisors have a named successor. Among senior advisors expecting to transition within five years, 38% had a specific successor in mind, and 59% of senior advisors expect to transition fully within that window. Only 42% of advisors had a fully documented, legally formalized plan.

The Kestra study, a separate survey of independent broker-dealer and RIA advisors, looked at owners who were all planning an internal succession. Of those planning to retire within ten years, 6% had a fully documented succession plan, meaning all six components the study listed, and 41% had transferred any equity to a successor. On the other side of the table, 34% of its next-generation advisors said they would consider leaving their current practice without a clear succession timeline.

Can the next generation afford it?

The DeVoe RIA Deal Book for the first quarter of 2026, as reported by Financial Advisor magazine, found only 22% of firms saying internal successors can afford to buy out founders, down from 38% four years earlier. DeVoe attributed the widening gap to firm valuations climbing faster than the capital available to emerging leaders, and described outside sales as the practical solution to ownership transitions.

Kestra's owners add their own view. Of the owners planning to retire within ten years, 29% named successors lacking sufficient funds in the report's chart of reasons for not transferring equity, and in its chart of plan components only 22% had documented a financing source for a successor's purchase. The buyout guide below walks through the structures that exist.

What does the pipeline look like?

Cerulli's January 2024 release on U.S. Advisor Metrics 2023 put the rookie failure rate at around 72%, and it is the latest rookie failure rate in the Cerulli releases read for this page. In August 2026 Cerulli reported that 73% of practice management professionals cite the time required to learn the business as a major challenge and 67% say day-to-day training takes too much time.

What does this mean for a G2?

The statistics describe a market in which many owners plan to retire, many juniors are interested in the practice, and plans are often not fully documented. The decisions that follow are specific to each practice:

• Before signing a firm's program: should a G2 advisor sign a sunset agreement as the successor covers the terms a successor takes on.
• Before the founder retires: what a G2 advisor should negotiate lists the written terms to ask for.
• Paying for the purchase: how G2 advisors pay for a buyout sets out the financing routes.
• Weighing the alternatives: should a G2 advisor inherit the book or move works through the timing of that choice.

The Successor's Checklist collects the questions to ask before any inheritor, sunset or buy-in agreement is signed.

These numbers describe the market. What a particular book of business would command, and which firms suit its culture, technology, support and service, comes out of a conversation that draws on Winthrop's relationships and past deals. The firm pays Winthrop & Co., and the advisor never pays. Request an Introduction.