For some wirehouse financial advisors, the thought of going independent can be alluring––and a little scary. Leaving the mother ship means cutting the apron strings to comprehensive back-office support and reporting systems required to make a successful advisory practice possible.
Cerulli Associates forecasts that the RIA channel will continue to grow at the expense of the wirehouse channel, and that so-called boutique firms will increasingly be a go-to place for wirehouse advisors breaking away to the RIA space.
In Cerulli’s report, Boutique Advisory Firms and RIAs: Balancing Scale and Independence for Top-Tier Advisors, the Boston-based consultancy says that defining features of boutique RIAs include a firm of limited scale, a focus on advisors with “above average” asset levels, and an advisor-centric model where advisor-client relationships are paramount.
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