RIAs and Independent Brokerages Gain Advisors, Face Retention

Independent brokerages and registered investment advisors recorded the largest five-year net increases in registered representatives, while rapid growth is creating retention challenges as some advisory firms scale and change employment models.

ISS Market Intelligence used its MarketPro Discovery tool to track registrations across broker-dealers and RIAs. The study found five-year net gains of nearly 10,000 reps at RIAs and about 5,700 at independent brokerages. Last year more than 39,000 advisors changed firms, a double-digit rise and a three-year high.

LPL Financial led the industry in net rep additions, outpacing its nearest competitors by more than 6,000 and exceeding the net gain of the entire independent brokerage channel. Other firms in the top 10 for net gains included Raymond James & Associates, RBC, Fisher Investments, Creative Planning and insurer-owned Empower Financial Services.

The report identified several factors behind advisor movement: frequent mergers and acquisitions, larger recruiting packages from private equity-backed and public companies, and an ongoing advisor preference for autonomy and flexible business models. Jodie Papike, chief executive of recruiting firm Cross-Search, said, ‘We’re seeing continued, rapid consolidation, and it’s affecting thousands and thousands of advisors a year.’ She added that many RIAs now hire advisors as W-2 employees, which can reduce owner economics and make some firms resemble the larger employee channels advisors left.

Registration patterns have changed since 2010. The number of reps registered only with RIAs more than doubled from 2010 levels. Brokerage-only registrations have fallen by 41 percent, and dual registration with both an RIA and a brokerage has risen to nearly the same level brokerage-only registration held 15 years ago.

Demographics are contributing to turnover. The study found more than 100,000 reps, about 14 percent of the industry, had at least 32 years of experience. In 2010, only 5 percent of reps had that level of tenure. In 2025, the number of reps switching firms was just under 5 percent of the industry, the largest share since 2022 and the first time in a decade that annual switching rose for three consecutive years.

The report noted a tension between independence and scale. Firms that attract teams seeking autonomy often also invest in centralized resources such as technology, compliance, access to alternative investments and back-office support. Alan Hess, a vice president at ISS and the study’s author, wrote in the report: ‘What we continue to see across the U.S. wealth landscape is steady migration toward independence, with advisors and reps increasingly moving to a more fragmented RIA market.’

Most advisor moves continue to occur within the same channel rather than across channels, the study found. Representatives cited higher payouts, greater independence, improved technology and platforms, more compliance support and access to alternative investments as reasons for switching. The largest shifts tended to be among similar firms; cross-channel moves required larger operational and regulatory changes.

The study also said that as some RIAs grow very large, the biggest RIAs could begin to compete directly with the firms that originally attracted advisors away, a development that the report said could create new retention pressures and recruiting competition across the industry.