.4T
in client assets managed by
advisors expected to retire
within a decade
CHIEF EXIT OFFICER™
You've spent 30 years planning other people's futures. Who is planning yours?
The RIA succession crisis is not a future problem. It is happening right now — and the advisors who act on it first will have the most choices.
<1 in 3
RIA owners have a
documented succession
plan in place
58
median age of an
RIA principal today —
up every year
The Research
The Numbers Tell a Story Most Advisors Haven't Finished Reading
The succession planning gap in the RIA industry is not a matter of opinion — it is one of the most thoroughly documented structural challenges in financial services. What follows is what the data actually shows.
70%
of all client assets in the RIA channel are controlled by advisors over age 55
Cerulli Associates, U.S. Advisor Metrics Report 2023
37%
of all financial advisors plan to retire within the next decade — far outpacing the pace of replacement
Cerulli Associates, 2023
<5%
of practicing financial advisors are under age 30. The succession pipeline is thin, slow, and underfunded
CFP Board, Financial Planning Workforce Report 2023
15,000+
SEC or state-registered RIA firms currently operating in the United States — the largest cohort ever
Investment Adviser Association (IAA), 2024
4T
in wealth expected to transfer between generations over the next 20 years — most of it currently managed by advisors approaching retirement
Cerulli Associates, 2023
80B+
in AUM moved from wirehouse channels to independent RIA platforms in 2023 alone — a record year of breakaway activity
Echelon Partners RIA M&A Deal Report, 2023
"There are far more advisors approaching retirement than there are qualified, capitalized buyers ready to acquire their books. This imbalance creates a buyer's market — but only for buyers with the right structure, the right trust, and the right story."
— Chief Exit Officer™, State of the State Research Briefing, 2026
A FEW QUESTIONS WORTH SITTING WITH
If You're Being Honest With Yourself…
These are not rhetorical. They are the questions that advisors who have sat across from us say they had been avoiding for years.
You've spent 25–35 years building your practice. If you stepped back tomorrow — what would happen to your clients?
What has stopped you from moving forward with a succession plan — and what is that delay costing you every year?
Have you looked closely at what a traditional sale actually nets after taxes, earn-out risk, non-compete restrictions, and client attrition?
When you picture the best version of your transition — what is still true for you on the other side of it?
What would it mean for your family if your exit was structured to provide income for years — rather than a single check you'll spend a third of paying taxes?
THE RESEARCH OF INACTION
Why Most Advisors Know They Should Have a Plan — and Still Don't
According to Fidelity Institutional's 2023 Advisor Insights study and FP Transitions' Succession Planning Survey, the barriers to planning are behavioral and relational — not primarily financial. Advisors are not failing to act because they don't care. They're failing to act because the right path hasn't presented itself.
The Trust Deficit
Most advisors don't trust institutional buyers to treat their clients the way they would. Industry surveys document widespread regret among advisors who sold to PE-backed aggregators — elevated turnover within 24–36 months post-acquisition is now a documented pattern. Word travels fast in the advisor community.
Identity Fusion
For many advisors, the practice is not just a business — it is their identity. "Retiring" means acknowledging that a chapter is ending. The succession solutions that resonate are the ones that allow the advisor to remain purposeful, not simply liquidate.
The Valuation Illusion
Advisors read headlines about institutional multiples and believe their practice is worth more than the market will actually pay. For the vast majority of firms managing less than $300M in AUM — roughly 80% of the RIA universe — the realistic buyer pool shrinks dramatically. PE aggregators typically target firms with $500M or more. Most advisors are left with far fewer options than they assumed.
Process Paralysis
The M&A process for even a small RIA is lengthy, invasive, and emotionally exhausting. Most advisors don't have the bandwidth to manage a formal sale process while continuing to serve clients at the level those clients deserve.
No Good Options
Until recently, the choice was essentially: sell to PE, find an internal buyer who may not be capitalized, or do nothing. None of these felt right for the typical Main Street advisor who built their practice on trust, relationships, and a genuine commitment to client outcomes.
"The succession planning gap is not caused by a lack of awareness — it is caused by a lack of viable, trust-based solutions."
— FP Transitions / Fidelity Institutional Research, synthesized
THE COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE
The Market Has Changed. Have Your Options?
The Aggregator Backlash Is Documented
The Underserved Middle Market
Multiple studies — from InvestmentNews, Financial Planning, and Barron's — have reported a consistent pattern: elevated advisor turnover within 24–36 months of PE-backed acquisitions. The primary complaints are the same across firms: loss of autonomy, cultural mismatch, technology disruption, and reduced service quality for clients.
Advisors who see colleagues sell to aggregators and regret it do not stay quiet. That word-of-mouth is reshaping what advisors are willing to consider.
The most important structural fact in RIA succession today: no institutional buyer is effectively serving the advisor managing $100M–$500M+ in AUM with a compelling, trust-based, structured exit solution.
PE aggregators require $500M+ and strong EBITDA margins. Banks move slowly. Custodian matching programs offer connections but no capital. Internal succession is routinely undercapitalized. An estimated 3,000–5,000 SEC or state-registered RIA firms fall directly in this underserved band.
Wirehouse Dissatisfaction Is at a Multi-Year High
That is the gap Chief Exit Officer™ was designed to fill.
According to J.D. Power's 2023 and 2024 U.S. Financial Advisor Satisfaction Studies, wirehouse advisor satisfaction has declined materially — driven by reduced payout grids, increased compliance burden, reduced product flexibility, and corporate consolidation. The advisors most likely to act: ages 45–58, managing $75M–$300M+ in client AUM.
Wirehouse "sunset" programs typically compensate departing advisors at 1.0–1.5× trailing 12-month gross revenue — a fraction of what the same practice can generate through a structured, properly documented independent succession arrangement.
WHAT ADVISORS DON'T WANT
- Sell to a PE firm and lose autonomy
- Hand clients to a stranger overnight
- Accept a punishing earn-out structure
- A check, a non-compete, and a goodbye
- Lose purpose along with the paycheck
WHAT ADVISORS DO WANT
- Stay involved as long as it serves them
- Know clients are genuinely cared for
- Receive fair value over time
- Continue earning — not just a check
- Transition on a glide path they control
A Different Kind of Conversation
Chief Exit Officer™ is the marketing platform of an affiliated registered investment advisory firm that is actively and selectively [pending vocabulary fix] independent advisory practices. We do not aggregate at scale. We do not hand practices to strangers. We do not write a check and disappear.
Every arrangement we structure is individually designed — around the advisor's life, their clients' continuity, and a glide path that allows them to remain purposeful for as long as that makes sense.
We are not a transaction. We are a structured transition — built on the premise that the advisor who wants to exit well deserves an [pending vocabulary fix] who is as invested in the outcome as they are.
"You spent your career planning other people's futures. Let us help you plan yours — without giving up the one you've already built."
— Brian P. Callanan, Chief Exit Officer™
Relationship-First
Individually Structured
Advisor Keeps Purpose
Clients Stay — Relationships Continue
Income Over Time — Not Just a Check
WHO THIS IS FOR
Is This Conversation for You?
Chief Exit Officer™ markets on behalf of an affiliated registered investment advisory firm that is actively seeking to [pending vocabulary fix] practices from advisors who built something worth protecting — and want to protect it the right way.
INDEPENDENT RIA OWNER
You Built It. You Should Control How It Ends.
AUM: $100M – $500M+ AUM
Age 55+. You have spent decades building client relationships that represent real, documented enterprise value — and no institutional buyer has offered you a path that felt right. PE is too disruptive. Internal succession is undercapitalized. Doing nothing is not a plan.
WIREHOUSE ADVISOR
You've Earned the Right to Something Better.
AUM: $75M – $300M+ AUM
Age 45–58. Your payout has been cut. Your compliance burden has grown. Your product flexibility has shrunk. You built the relationships — your firm kept the economics. Independence is not as complicated as they want you to believe, and the technology gap closed years ago.
What are you going to do if nothing changes — if you keep running the same practice the same way for the next 5–10 years?
If you don't address your succession plan now, what does that cost you — and your clients — in the years ahead?
How important is it to you that the people who trusted you with their financial lives continue to be served the way you would serve them?
ONE CONVERSATION CHANGES EVERYTHING
Schedule a 30-Minute Introductory Call
No pitch. No pressure. Just an honest conversation about where you are and what your options may be.
If we decide to move forward together, we will agree at that point to a Mutual NCND — so that both parties are protected before either shares what matters most.
No Obligation
Confidential
30 Minutes, No Pitch
NCND After Call If We Proceed
This website is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a solicitation to buy or sell any security. Chief Exit Officer™ is the marketing platform of an affiliated registered investment advisory firm. All succession arrangements are individually structured and subject to legal documentation and regulatory compliance requirements. Data and statistics cited reflect publicly available industry research and are provided for informational context only. Past industry trends do not guarantee future results. Projections are illustrative only. Consult your legal, tax, compliance, and financial advisors before making any succession planning decisions.
© 2026 Chief Exit Officer™. All rights reserved. | info@ChiefExitOfficer.com | chiefexitofficer.com