“You have to get trained somewhere and the corporation will train you, but once you start with a corporation they do not want to let you go,” she said.

Lauren Locker, founder of Locker Financial Services in Little Falls, N.J., with $35 million in assets under management, has been independent her entire career and would not change.

“Being your own boss is a curse and a blessing,” she said. “But it helps you relate to business owners you are advising because you know what they are going through.”

It also enables a firm like Locker Financial to cater to aging baby boomers and to specialize in advising the elderly. An independent can decide to cater to any group, such as teachers or autoworkers, where he or she develops an expertise, Locker said.

Being independent means you could miss the interaction with a lot of other advisors, but that is why associations are so important for sharing ideas, Locker said. Locker is chair of the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA) and says her interaction with colleagues through the association is invaluable.

Whether someone can be their own boss depends on the type of person he or she is, according to James Poe, owner of Jim Poe and Associates in Fort Worth, Texas, with about $40 million in assets under management. He also runs a hedge fund.

“If you are a good boss you should go independent,” says Poe. “If you are not, it won’t work. For me, I do not want to have someone else managing my work. We manage all of our clients' money ourselves.”

Another burden taken off the plate for an advisor who opts to go with a corporate RIA is marketing.

“It is not how good you are, it is how good your marketing is,” says Mark D. Kemp, president of Kemp and Associates Retirement Services of Harleysville, Pa., which has $270 million under management. “You have to be a go-getter and be willing to take on the headache of running your own business to be independent. Some advisors are willing to trade the independence for security and a flow of clients that a corporation can provide.”

Advisors interviewed disagreed with the NFP study's conclusion that most advisors working for a corporate RIA make more income than those who are independent.