RIAs Expand as Clients Leave Banks, CEOs Say

Four industry leaders spoke at the Goldman Sachs RIA Professional Investor Forum on Tuesday, outlining trends they say are shaping independent wealth management. The panel included Shirl Penney, founder and CEO of Dynasty Financial Partners; Robert Sechan, managing partner and co-founder of NewEdge Wealth; Larry Restieri, CEO of Hightower Advisors; and Susie Cranston, CEO of Cresset Capital.

Penney presented data on client flows, saying roughly $400 billion moved from banks and brokerages to the independent channel last year. He estimated about $100 billion of that accompanied breakaway advisor teams, with the remaining flows coming from clients who left banks on their own to seek fiduciary advisers. “Fundamentally, what that is, is the consumer choosing with their feet,” Penney remarked.

Restieri described advisor migration as largely one-way, noting many advisers have left wirehouses for RIAs and few, if any, have returned. He used the phrase “one-way street” to characterize the trend.

Cranston raised concerns about the labor pipeline. She cited a McKinsey projection of a 100,000-advisor shortage and said the number of people passing CPA exams has declined about 50 percent over the past five to eight years. Cranston also linked AI-driven automation to smaller analyst classes and fewer traditional training paths at large firms, and predicted scaled firms will have an advantage in recruiting and developing staff.

Restieri outlined an operating model he calls the “Volkswagen model,” in which a shared technology and compliance platform supports multiple client-facing brands. He noted Hightower launched a direct-to-consumer brand, Hightower Signature Wealth, in October and said it manages about $30 billion in assets today and is expected to reach $50 billion by year-end through organic growth and acquisitions.

On portfolio construction, Sechan questioned the standard practice of treating a client’s assets as a single pool optimized for statistical efficiency. He proposed separating assets into purpose-defined buckets-liquidity, lifestyle and longevity-so each segment can be managed to meet its specific goal. Sechan reported NewEdge advisors produced about 11 percent organic growth last year, net of market movement and flows.

Panelists said artificial intelligence and model portfolios are standardizing many investment tasks. Restieri argued that as models handle more of the analytical work, an advisor’s interpersonal skills and judgment will become more prominent. He stated that clients pay for the advisor and their emotional intelligence, adding that a large part of the job involves guiding clients through market stress.

Penney described a planned AI application his firm will deploy: an avatar named “virtual Shirl” trained on five years of his emails and hundreds of speeches to replicate his voice and communication style for client education and outreach. He said the tool is expected to be ready in about 100 days and that it should speed initial client education about the firm.

Panelists left the session identifying three recurring factors they said are affecting the RIA sector: client-led migration from banks and brokerages, a projected advisor shortfall and technology-driven standardization of investment tasks.