Advisor Movement Trends Report: Q4 2024 – Q1 2025
AdvizorPro Research | April 2025
Executive Summary
This report provides a six-month look at advisor transitions across channels and firms—from wirehouses and IBDs to RIAs and aggregators. Between October 2024 and March 2025, advisor movement remained strong and dynamic, driven by a shifting regulatory landscape, margin pressure, and intensifying platform competition.
Advisors moved in large numbers, seeking better alignment with business models, technology stacks, and long-term autonomy. Using AdvizorPro’s proprietary dataset, this report delivers a comprehensive analysis of advisor inflows and outflows, breakaway trends, net firm growth, new advisor hiring, age-related dynamics, and strategic movement across the wealth management ecosystem.
Table of Contents
- Channel-Level Trends: Net Hires and Exits
Analysis of advisor inflows and outflows across wirehouse, IBD, hybrid, and RIA channels. - Key Takeaways & Industry Context
Interpretation of migration trends and their connection to current industry events. - Channel Retention Metrics
Insights into how often advisors switch firms within the same regulatory model. - Breakaway Analysis: Where Advisors Went
Examination of advisors exiting wirehouses and broker-dealers—and where they landed. - Top Destination Firms for Breakaways
The most popular firms attracting breakaway advisor talent. - Top Firms by Net Inflows
Firms gaining the most advisors after accounting for outflows, with growth drivers. - Top Firms by Net Outflows
Firms with the steepest advisor losses and key reasons behind the exits. - Advisor Age Trends
Analysis of advisor movement by age group, including average and median age data. - Advisor Entrant Trends
Overview of firms and channels bringing new advisors into the industry. - Final Takeaways
A summary of the most actionable trends for distribution, recruiting, and platform strategy.
Channel-Level Trends: Net Hires and Exits
Advisor movement patterns across channels provide a clear view into the evolving structure of the wealth management landscape. This section outlines which regulatory models are gaining or losing traction based on advisor inflows and outflows.
Key Takeaways and Industry Context
- RIA growth (+1,860 net hires) reflects the continued shift toward independence, supported by M&A from consolidators like Mercer Advisors, Captrust, and Wealth Enhancement Group, as well as improved access to tech infrastructure and operational support.
- Hybrid platforms (+277 net) saw gains from wirehouse advisors transitioning to more flexible models while retaining broker-dealer affiliations.
- IBD losses (-480 net) underscore friction within legacy broker-dealers, especially those undergoing platform changes or consolidation, such as Osaic and Commonwealth. A number of advisors have exited, amid compliance shifts and compensation changes.
- Wirehouse attrition (-562 net) reflects an ongoing shift in advisor preferences. Many younger and mid-career professionals are gravitating toward platforms that offer greater flexibility, long-term growth potential, and opportunities for client ownership—factors that alternative models like hybrids and RIAs are increasingly positioned to support.
Channel Retention Metrics
While some advisors switch regulatory models as shown in the previous section, the majority change firms within the same channel. This analysis shows how sticky each channel is.
Nearly 9 in 10 advisors who changed firms stayed within the same regulatory channel, indicating firm-level dissatisfaction, M&A, and restructuring more than structural change.
Breakaway Analysis: Where Advisors Went
Breakaways signal dissatisfaction and strategic realignment. This section zeroes in on where those advisors landed, building on the channel-level trends shown earlier. Most breakaways continue to favor hybrid platforms as a stepping stone toward independence, with a smaller group transitioning directly to RIA or IBD structures.
Most breakaway advisors from wirehouses opted for hybrid platforms, with a smaller share moving directly to RIA or IBD structures. This suggests that many are seeking flexibility and autonomy while still relying on broker-dealer infrastructure as a transition step.
Top Destination Firms for Breakaways
Key Takeaways
- Most breakaways are choosing hybrid models, blending autonomy with broker-dealer support during transition.
- RIAs continue to attract full-independence seekers, though many reach them via a hybrid phase first.
- LPL, Raymond James, and J.P. Morgan appear in both breakaway and net inflow lists—reinforcing their position as talent destinations and strong recruiters.
- Newer aggregators like &Partners and Rockefeller are gaining share by offering improved economics and advisor experience.
Top Firms by Net Inflows (Q4 2024 – Q1 2025)
These firms had the highest net advisor gains after accounting for both inflows and outflows. Their performance reflects a combination of recruiting strength, platform consolidation, and appeal to breakaway advisors—many of whom moved from wirehouse or IBD channels, as shown earlier.
Key Takeaways:
- LPL and Osaic’s strong gains reflect proactive recruiting supported by tuck-in acquisitions and platform consolidation. Combined, LPL’s retail and enterprise channels added over 3,500 advisors.
- Fidelity Brokerage Services’ net inflows (+12,525) point to internal reassignments.
- Focus Partners (+251) illustrates how smaller consolidators are winning breakaways from large broker-dealers by offering better economics and operational freedom.
- Cetera’s steady gains (+378 and +309 net across two entities) reflect its multi-affiliate model continuing to attract advisors seeking flexibility without full independence.
Top Firms by Net Outflows
Conversely, this section highlights firms experiencing the steepest net advisor losses—often a signal of culture shifts, business model friction, or increased competition from other platforms.
Key Takeaways:
- Fidelity Personal’s massive outflow (-25,431) reflects internal reclassification tied to shifting advisor models or reorganization within their workplace services division.
- Pruco Securities (-2,814) continues to see advisors exit the captive insurance model, fueled by dual-licensed advisors migrating to hybrid or fee-based channels.
- Merrill (-369) and J.P. Morgan Private Wealth (-662) show continued legacy wirehouse attrition, with many reps citing payout pressure and lack of independence.
- Osaic saw advisor outflows across its legacy and newly consolidated entities—including 1,112 from Osaic FA, 307 from Osaic FS, and 676 from Osaic Wealth. These movements likely reflect transitional friction tied to platform consolidation, as the firm unified under the Osaic Wealth brand post-Aquiline rollups.
Advisor Age Trends
Age continues to play a key role in the advisor movement. Younger professionals often seek growth and alignment, while older reps evaluate succession plans. This section breaks down movement by advisor age.
- Nearly half (47.6%) of advisor moves came from those under 40
- Average age of channel changers: 44
- Median advisor age: 40
New Advisor Hiring Trends
This section explores where the next generation of advisors is beginning their careers—highlighting the firms and channels drawing the most new talent. While over 1,100 firms hired at least one new advisor during the period, just 12 firms accounted for over 43% of all new hires, underscoring the high concentration of talent acquisition among the industry’s largest players.
Summary Statistics:
- Total New Advisors: 6,156
- Total Hiring Firms: 1,151
- Average New Advisors per Firm: 5.4
- 66% of firms hired only one new advisor
- The top 12 firms hired over 100 advisors each, accounting for 43.4% of all new advisor hires
This concentration of hiring shows how a small group of large enterprises dominates advisor recruitment, while the rest of the market is fragmented across firms with just one or two new hires.
Top Firms by New Advisor Count
New Advisor Distribution by Channel
The majority of new advisors—nearly 47%—entered the industry through broker-dealers, with an additional 29% affiliating through dual-registered platforms that offer both brokerage and advisory capabilities. In contrast, just 12.5% joined wirehouses, and only 11.7% started directly with RIA firms. This distribution suggests that despite the long-term shift toward independence among experienced advisors, most new entrants continue to begin their careers within more structured or captive environments, likely due to training programs, brand recognition, and operational support. As these advisors gain experience, many may eventually migrate to hybrid or RIA models, following the same path observed in broader industry movement trends.
Final Takeaways
To summarize the key insights from this six-month snapshot, we highlight a few of the most actionable trends in advisor movement and recruiting strategy:
- RIA platforms are absorbing the majority of advisor exits from wirehouses and BDs
- Firm-level dissatisfaction is a bigger driver of movement than regulatory structure
- Younger advisors (under 40) are driving nearly half of all moves
- Hiring is highly concentrated: top firms are capturing outsized share of new advisor talent
